Introduction: Healthcare workers have a high workload as compared to other sectors and this burden is projected to increase due to an aging society. Additional workload is also expected by implementation of recommendations from new European Society of Cardiology guidelines. This is important, because most patients are not treated with optimal medical treatment according to the guidelines. This study aims to evaluate the impact of digital consultations (DC) including video contact on efficiency and clinical impact in heart failure (HF) patients and patients with severe secondary mitral valve insufficiency.~Hypothesis: It is hypothesized that healthcare workers will save time due to DC on data entry in electronic patient records and rather spend time on implementation of guidelines for optimal treatment of patients. Patients will likely save time on travelling to the hospital.~Methods: A randomized controlled trial on DC will be performed comprising of digital information sharing and video consultation (VC). Patients can store current medication use, receive information about their disease via an E-Learning, record blood pressures at home, and view laboratory results and recommended medications. Included patients will be randomly assigned to perform DC or standard care.~Endpoints: Guideline prescription rate, time spend on healthcare, and patient satisfaction will be evaluated at baseline and at 10 weeks after inclusion for the group with DC and standard care. In total 150 patients will be enrolled.~Expected results: Pilot studies on DC report promising results on feasibility and time efficiency. This randomized controlled trial is expected to be the first to demonstrate greater prescription rate of new guidelines, substitute physical contact for DC, and show reduction of workload due to time savings in VHD and HF patients.
Healthcare workers have a high workload as compared to other sectors and this burden is projected to increase due to an aging society. Additional workload is also expected by implementation of recommendations from new European Society of Cardiology guidelines. This is important, because most patients are not treated with optimal medical treatment according to the guidelines. This study aims to evaluate the impact of digital consultations (DC) on efficiency and clinical impact in heart failure (HF) patients.~A randomized controlled trial on DC will be performed comprising of digital information sharing and video consultation (VC). Patients can store current medication use, receive information about their disease via an E-Learning, record blood pressures at home, and view laboratory results and recommended medications. Included patients will be randomly assigned to perform DC or standard care.~This randomized controlled trial is expected to be the first to demonstrate greater prescription rate of new guidelines and show reduction of workload due to time savings in VHD and HF patients due to substitution of standard care with DC.