An interventional study of Motivational texting and Control in Coronary Artery Disease, sponsored by Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Active, not recruiting at 1 site in Canada. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-04-27.
Sponsored by Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
Although there have been substantial advances in the treatment of heart disease, heart attacks remain one of the leading causes of death and suffering around the world. Each year, more than 80,000 patients are hospitalized with heart attacks or related conditions in Canada. Even after discharge, patients are at high risk of having complications such that almost one in two patients after a heart attack will be readmitted to hospitals within the first year. Given the shortage of doctors and allied health care professionals, there is an emerging focus of digital health as a way to improve the care and outcomes after heart attacks. With more than 30 million cell phone users across Canada and almost all are already using text message services, the goal of this study is to conduct a pilot test using an innovative clinical trial design to see if the care and outlook of heart attack patients using mobile text messages can be improved.
The healthcare system is in desperate need of novel strategies to better engage with cardiac patients to improve care and how patients interact with the healthcare system. Although almost everyone has a mobile phone in Canada, healthcare systems have not sufficiently explored mobile health strategies that can improve health. Yet, a recent survey suggests that alternative access to healthcare is highly desirable by Canadians. Adoption of mobile health technologies has the potential to add an additional avenue for how the healthcare system can interact with patients. Most importantly, these strategies are already used by many other industries and thus can be easily implementable and expandable in healthcare institutions across the country.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become evident that the way healthcare is delivered in the future will be different than it has been for many decades. With the conversion of many forms of care to virtual and online platforms, mobile-based care could become an important component of cardiac care. Thus, this project will help to explore the use of mobile-based virtual care platforms in cardiac follow-up in the ACS populations.
The main goal of the study is to test the feasibility and potential effects of mobile text message-based intervention on transitions of care after hospitalization with heart attack.
The hypotheses are that i) the majority of patients will be willing to participate in the pilot study and continue to receive text messages during the study, ii) the group that receives texting will have more frequent physician visits and take medication more consistently at 1 year after discharge, iii) the group that receives texting will have lower rates of readmission at 1 year after discharge.
One of the most innovative aspects of this study is the ability to conduct an intervention of mobile technology and follow-up outcomes of patients using existing registries and data that are routinely collected in day-to-day care. Accordingly, this study will be conducted at a fraction of the cost compared to a traditional randomized design. It also means that the study concept could be easily replicated in many different areas of medicine.
The main goal of the study is to test the feasibility of mobile text message-based interventions on transitions of care after hospitalization with a heart attack.
Medication compliance, re-hospitalization, and Emergency Department presentation will be tracked. These outcomes will be measured using ICES database linking patient health care number, to determine hospital admissions, ER presentations, and prescription filling.
5,598 studies on the registry are indexed under Coronary Artery Disease; 957 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 241 is above the median of 124 across 3,436 interventional studies indexed under Coronary Artery Disease.
Browse Coronary Artery Disease studies →Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is the lead sponsor of 566 studies on the registry; 134 are open to participants now.
Of its 6 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 2 (33%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Exclusion Criteria:
Subjects will receive specific health-related texts
Other: Motivational texting
Subjects will receive general text messages without health information
Other: Control
Health related information relevant to a subject's diagnosis and ongoing treatment
Non-motivational text messages containing no specific health information
Physician visit
Visit to a primary care physician or cardiologist specialist
Time frame: Within one month, 3 months, and 12 months of randomization
Emergency Department presentation
Presentation to an ED for any cause
Time frame: Within one month, 3 months, and 12 months of randomization
Re-hospitalization
To assess the need to re-hospitalize patient due to CAD
Time frame: Within one month, 3 months, and 12 months of hospital discharge
Medication compliance
Assessment of medication compliance related to CAD
Time frame: Within one month, 3 months, and 12 months of hospital discharge
Plan to share: No
This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Apr 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre