Designing a Tool to Support the Integration of Activity Tracker Data in Blended Cardiac Rehabilitation
L.W.L. Kho (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
J.J. Kraal – Mentor (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
A. Albayrak – Mentor (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
This graduation project focused on strengthening the blended cardiac rehabilitation pathway at Basalt Leiden by exploring how activity tracker data from The Box, a home-monitoring initiative developed by LUMC for cardiac patients, could be meaningfully integrated into daily practice. Basalt’s assignment was to identify possible bottlenecks in the integration of this data and, based on the identified insights and opportunities, a tool is designed that supports its implementation. Integrating step count data is important because it can provide physiotherapists with more objective insight into patients’ daily physical activity. Currently, remote coaching moments largely depend on patients’ self-reported activity, while Basalt aims to make rehabilitation more data-informed, personalised, and supportive of long-term behaviour change.
The project followed the Double Diamond process, moving from broad exploration towards a focused design proposal. A literature review was conducted on cardiac rehabilitation, blended care, hybrid care, technology adoption, and behaviour change. This was complemented by context research at Basalt, including semi-structured interviews, stakeholder walk-alongs, stakeholder mapping, thematic analysis, and journey mapping. Insights were gathered from patients, physiotherapists, other healthcare professionals, organisational stakeholders, and researchers to understand the current pathway, stakeholder needs, and barriers to implementation.
The research showed that blended care is already present at Basalt, especially within physiotherapy through physical training, home exercises via Physitrack, and evaluation phone calls. However, it is not yet clearly defined, consistently introduced, or structurally embedded in daily practice. Patients are not
always sufficiently onboarded, which contributes to limited engagement with digital tools. Physiotherapists also differ in how they apply blended care, partly due to the absence of a shared workflow. In addition, the findings showed that remote coaching currently relies strongly on subjective self-report. This supported Basalt’s existing ambition to integrate activity tracker data into the pathway, as step count data could provide physiotherapists with more objective insight into patients’ daily physical activity. However, the findings also showed that this data will only be useful if it supports coaching in a practical way and does not create extra workload.
Based on these insights, the design direction shifted towards supporting Basalt’s organisational team in onboarding physiotherapists to the use of activity tracker data. The final concept, Steps2Coach, consists of a physical pathway cube and a supporting poster. The cube visualises six phases of the physiotherapy trajectory: physio intake, physical treatment, home training, evaluation preparation, evaluation phone call, and aftercare. Each side explains the patient milestone, the physiotherapist’s role, the added value of activity tracker data, and a coaching prompt. The poster provides additional context about The Box and practical support. Together, these elements make activity tracker data visible, tangible, and connected to concrete coaching moments. Evaluation showed that Steps2Coach is clear, engaging, and relevant as a first step towards implementation, while further testing and practical integration are still needed.