Evaluating the requirements of patients with heart diseases in a telehealthcare service

Telehealthcare has the potential to extend healthcare services beyond border. The needs of patients and the way patients use such services are worth investigating, however, few of the previous work discussed the requirements of patients within telehealthcare services and the way patients use such kind of service. This study investigates patient requirements through analyzing the phone call records. The phone calls to and from the patients indicates their problems. Through analyzing the phone call records, we are able to understand more about the needs of patients and track their problems. The data of 188 patients were collected. And the frequencies of the phone calls were compared to patient demographic variables and diagnosis. The result shows that the older the patient is, the more they use phone call services; the longer a patient entered the telehealthcare program, the fewer calls they make. Patients with heart failure call more frequently than patients with other cardiovascular diseases. It is meaningful to explore the needs of patients and to improve telehealthcare services based on patient experiences.