Philanthropy drives telehealth innovation in Cardiovascular Care

When screening patients to see if they’re capable of using the Chanl Health app available to cardiovascular patients, IU Health clinicians ask a simple question.

“Can you place an order on Amazon?” said Katrina Riggin, Manager of Cardiac Ancillary Services at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital.

If a patient says yes, then they receive a link to download the Chanl Health app offered through the East Region’s Cardio-Pulmonary Rehabilitation Clinic.

The app allows patients to access education materials from anywhere. A specialist at IU Health Ball manages the virtual care. In addition to the educational materials, each patient’s program is individualized with exercise recommendations and lifestyle changes based on their needs.

“The program works very well for someone like me who would have difficulty scheduling three sessions each week at the hospital,” said Brian, a patient who graduated from the cardiac rehab program at IU Health Ball. “Being able to log my exercise sessions on the app and have the community paramedics come out once a week has worked really great along with the other information that is provided in the app like nutrition, food shopping, and exercise tips.”

IU Health Ball was the first health system in the country to develop a bariatric rehabilitation program using the Chanl Health platform.

“The support from IU Health Foundation was huge,” said Riggin. It allowed us to innovate, because they alleviated the cost of implementing the program. Chanl Health gives patients more freedom to be held accountable. It has been a big win, and we’re still seeing growth in use of the virtual education component.”