Cardiac recovery: Going beyond cardiac rehab
Abhishek Chandra is the cofounder and chief executive officer of Recora, which is focused on redefining the future of heart health. Recora provides an innovative approach to cardiovascular recovery and management, combining patient care and technology to slow the progression of heart disease, prevent unnecessary hospitalizations, and expand access to home-based rehabilitation. Prior to founding Recora, Abhi co-founded Spring Health, a $2B data-driven mental health provider.
What are the challenges of cardiac rehab today?
AC: Cardiac rehab is a life-saving treatment program after a cardiac event, reducing all-cause hospital readmissions by 31% and all-cause mortality by 24% over one to three years. Although cardiac rehab is considered the standard of care, just 16% of eligible patients start the program and only 26% finish all sessions. When you do the math, this means only 4% of patients complete cardiac rehab despite its life saving benefits. This stems from two key challenges with cardiac rehab today: access and continuity of care.
The first challenge is access. Although up to 80% of patients are eligible for virtual care, cardiac rehab remains typically administered at in-person facilities. As a result, heart attack survivors spend an average of six weeks on a waitlist and drive 60 miles round trip to the nearest facility. Additionally, this model of care did not survive the COVID pandemic. An estimated 75% of cardiac rehab programs around the world ceased operations. The second challenge is continuity of care. The traditional model of cardiac rehab lacks a longitudinal relationship. Cardiac rehab looks only to support heart attack survivors after a specific episode with a 12-week program. But true cardiac care is more than just post-event rehab. We need to move beyond episodic care to long-term care management that focuses on a patient's overall health and wellness, providing them support in a continuous way via a long-term care plan with access to care teams via an app. At Recora, we call this cardiac recovery.
How does cardiac recovery solve the problem of access?
AC: We launched Recora with a mission to empower everyone to live a long, full and optimal life by redefining the future of heart health. Recora uses a virtual model that we designed to be easy to use even for older populations. A 91-year-old patient wrote to us: “I was worried about this tablet, but you've helped me learn how to use it. Now I can join sessions on my own.”
By solving the problem of access, Recora can improve completion rates. In fact, 87% of patients complete their cardiac recovery program compared to the national average of 26%.
How does cardiac recovery solve continuity of care for patients?
AC: Cardiac recovery is a model that goes beyond virtual rehab to build a continuous relationship with heart disease patients.
Recora Recovery is our flagship program that delivers the core tenets of cardiac rehab through immersive experiences on the Recora Portal. Each patient is also assigned a Recora Care Team of multidisciplinary specialists, including physicians, exercise physiologists, dietitians, and other specialists. The Recora Care Team goes beyond virtual sessions to answer clinical and lifestyle questions over chat, identifies care gaps and refers patients back into the system as needed. A typical patient has 140 interactions with our care team. Through this model, patients embark on a journey of continuous cardiac care from the comfort of their home. Beyond EHR documentation, Recora also serves as an extra pair of eyes and ears. This begins a longitudinal relationship with heart disease patients that was previously unobtainable for health systems.
Why does continuity matter for patients who survived a cardiac event?
AC: When patients are discharged from the hospital after a cardiac event, they enter a vulnerable period in their patient journey. A quarter of patients do not attend a follow up appointment with a physician after coming to the ER for chest pain even if they suffered a heart attack and 40% of patients are not loyal to a health system or local hospital. Cardiac recovery prevents leakage, keeping patients from slipping through the cracks at this vulnerable moment in their healthcare journey. By identifying care gaps, cardiac recovery also leads to accretive revenue and builds long-term loyalty with patients.