Reducing Hospital Readmissions Using Data Science And A Social Twist

Michael Gold and Lise Worthen-Chaudhari | O'Reilly Strata | August 15, 2013

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center uses patient's social setting to improve adherence

Heart disease is the most common cause of death in the United States for both men and women. And yet it is mostly attributable to things we can change, like a sedentary lifestyle. The good news is that we know how to help people with heart disease improve their health and quality of life. The bad news is that many people aren’t taking advantage of these critically important resources to get better.

For patients with heart disease, attending medically supervised cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is an absolute must. CR programs aim to improve health through structured exercise, education and counseling–and their impact is unequivocal. For every additional CR class attended, the risk of future death and heart attack decreases and expected lifespan increases. For these reasons and many more, CR is considered standard of care in clinical practice guidelines for heart disease.