Needs of multimorbid heart failure patients and their carers:
- a qualitative interview study and the creation of personas as a basis for a blended collaborative care (BCC) intervention
In the development of the blended collaborative care intervention for multimorbid heart failure patients, a qualitative study exploring the care-related needs and preferences of patients and carers was conducted.
Semi-structured interviews with 25 patients and 17 carers in Germany, Italy, and Denmark resulted in identification of 3 personas: (a) the one who needs and wants support, (b) the one who has accepted their situation with HF and reaches out when necessary, and (c) the one who feels neglected by the health care system.
Instead of providing “one size fits all” interventions, the results indicate that BCC interventions should offer different approaches based on the needs of individual patients and carers. The personas have served as a basis for the development of a novel BCC intervention as part of the EU project ESCAPE (Evaluation of a patient-centred biopsychosocial blended collaborative care pathway for the treatment of multimorbid elderly patients).