Chronic Heart failure Assisted by Telephone study (CHAT)

A randomised trial of telephone support for chronic heart failure patients at high risk of rehospitalisation funded by the NHMRC and the Medical Benefits Fund.

The CHAT study was a randomised control trial of telephone support for chronic heart failure patients at high risk of rehospitalisation.  This project was funded by the NHMRC, Heart Foundation of Australia and the Medical Benefits Fund.

This project implemented the first Australia-wide trial of telephone support for CHF patients.  The aims of the study were to determine whether automated telephone support will improve quality of life and reduce death & hospital admission for rural and remote CHF patients and to test this system of care as an exemplar of a novel chronic disease management strategy in areas remote from access to multi-disciplinary care.

The automated telephone support comprised of an interactive telecommunication software tool (Telewatch) with follow-up by trained cardiac nurses.  Patients with a general practice (GP) diagnosis of heart failure were randomised to telephone support (217 patients) or usual care (188 patients) using a cluster design involving 136 GPs throughout Australia.  Results showed that automated telephone support to the rural & remote heart failure patients resulted in a 30% reduction in risk of all-cause death & hospitalisation.  The CHAT study explored a novel system of health care delivery, targeting rural and remote Australians with chronic disease.  Automated telephone support may become a useful tool to address access issues for management programs in chronic disease patients.

Results were presented in a late breaking trials session at the European Heart Failure Association meeting in Nice, France.

Investigators

• Professor Andrew Tonkin
• Professor Henry Krum
• Professor Leon Piterman
• A/Prof Patricia Davidson, St George's Hospital, Sydney

Research Staff

• Andrea Driscoll
• Andrea Nangle
• Robyn Clark