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Global Health Econ Sustain Utilizing REDCap in a cardiac rehabilitation service

3.2. Patient profile the step-by-step creation of the electronic health record

The general characteristics of the patients are presented in on the REDCap online platform as an alternative to the
Table 1. The majority of patients were elderly, male, and paper-based health record (Figure 1). Subsequently, we
white. Regarding employment status, 33 (44%) patients provide a clinical description of the participants based on
reported being retired. Clinical data are summarized the entered data.
in Table 2. Information on the left ventricular ejection REDCap is an online, free, and user-friendly software
fraction (LVEF) was available for 67 patients from the that has been increasingly used for the secure storage of data
hospital’s internal system. in epidemiological and clinical studies (Garcia & Abrahão,

Patients were subjectively questioned about their main 2021). Its implementation and numerous functionalities
complaint. Of the 75 participants, 36 reported tiredness have been described in several works encompassing
when performing a certain level of exertion, 22 reported different populations and objectives, highlighting the
shortness of breath/dyspnea, and 15 reported chest pain/ advantages of data sharing, study organization, and bias
angina. Nine denied experiencing any symptoms. Less reduction (Kianersi et al., 2021; Vaz et al., 2020). In the
frequently reported issues included dizziness, non-thoracic present study, the implementation of this platform achieves
pain, edema, imbalance, and weakness. these benefits by serving as an alternative to the use of paper
records, which posed a risk of loss or leakage of sensitive
4. Discussion data. Consequently, it adapts to the regulation of the General
In this study, we describe the implementation process Data Protection Law, ensuring transparency and security.
of a rehabilitation patient registry in a CR service at a In our study, the majority of CR participants were
prominent cardiology hospital, along with the clinical men, white, elderly, and employed. Few studies focus
profile of patients enrolled in this program. We delineate on analyzing the profile of CR participants in Brazil.
A Canadian prospective study with 5,396 patients in CR
Table 1. General characteristics of the patients found a prominence of men and elderly individuals, in line
with our work (Gaalema et al., 2019).
Variables Number of patients (N=75)
Age (mean±SD years) 61.52±11.25 Regarding heart disease diagnosis, most patients had
Male sex (n [%]) 50 (66.7) ischemia as the etiology. Over the years, the treatment
of acute myocardial infarction has changed dramatically,
Race transitioning from absolute rest to physical exercise
White (n [%]) 62 (82.7) in CR centers (Redfern et al., 2022), as demonstrated
Black (n [%]) 11 (14.7) in this study. On the other hand, in the case of patients
Others (n [%]) 2 (2.7) with cardiomyopathy, in the present study, only four
Abbreviation: SD: Standard deviation. patients had this diagnosis, which is associated with an

Figure 1. The home screen of the online database REDCap .
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Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.1755