Currently submitted to: JMIR Cardio
Date Submitted: Jan 19, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Jan 22, 2026 - Mar 19, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Cardiac Inpatient Digital Health Utilization and Interest in Virtual Cardiac Rehabilitation: Prospective Cross-Sectional Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) improves patient quality of life, morbidity, and mortality. Unfortunately, it is underused by patients. Digital health interventions offer a solution to increase participation in CR. However, patients’ interest in virtual CR, especially among those in the inpatient setting, has not been fully explored. These benefits have been predominantly demonstrated in traditional, center-based CR programs.
Objective:
The objective of this prospective cross-sectional study was to explore inpatient interest in virtual cardiac rehabilitation among adult patients who were hospitalized with a cardiac rehabilitation-qualifying diagnosis.
Methods:
A Qualtrics survey, comprised of multiple-choice questions, was administered to cardiac inpatients at the progressive cardiac care unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital from January 2020 to March 2024. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were retrieved from the electronic medical record. The study included English-speaking patients over 18 years of age with a diagnosis eligible for CR.
Results:
A total of 150 patients were included (age 64 ± 13 years, 38% women, and 57% White). With respect to sociodemographic characteristics, 26% of the patients had a high school education or less, 47% were married, 26% were employed full-time, and 63% had private insurance. Participants with greater than high school education were more likely to perceive smartphones as beneficial for leading a healthier lifestyle (48.1% vs. 24.3%, p=0.01) and learning about illnesses (85.7% vs. 54.1%, p<0.001) than participants with a high school education or less. Participants across all sociodemographic factors expressed interest in virtual CR (overall 71.3%), with non-White participants being more interested than White participants (84.6% vs. 61.2%, p=0.002).
Conclusions:
The majority of cardiac inpatients expressed interest in home-based/virtual CR to alleviate barriers to in-person CR participation. Future work should emphasize digital equity and user support to optimize the widespread adoption of virtual CR.
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