{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,24]],"date-time":"2026-02-24T15:33:29Z","timestamp":1771947209288,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,22]],"date-time":"2023-02-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1677024000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000780","name":"European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["769807"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["769807"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000780","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of mortality in Europe, with potentially more than 60 million deaths per year, with an age-standardized rate of morbidity-mortality higher in men than women, exceeding deaths from cancer. Heart attacks and strokes account for more than four out of every five CVD fatalities globally. After a patient overcomes an acute cardiovascular event, they are referred for rehabilitation to help them to restore most of their normal cardiac functions. One effective way to provide this activity regimen is via virtual models or telerehabilitation, where the patient can avail themselves of the rehabilitation services from the comfort of their homes at designated timings. Under the funding of the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program, grant no 769807, a virtual rehabilitation assistant has been designed for elderly patients (vCare), with the overall objective of supporting recovery and an active life at home, enhancing patients\u2019 quality of life, lowering disease-specific risk factors, and ensuring better adherence to a home rehabilitation program. In the vCare project, the Carol Davila University of Bucharest (UMFCD) was in charge of the heart failure (HF) and ischemic heart disease (IHD) groups of patients. By creating a digital environment at patients\u2019 homes, the vCare system\u2019s effectiveness, use, and feasibility was evaluated. A total of 30 heart failure patients and 20 ischemic heart disease patients were included in the study. Despite the COVID-19 restrictions and a few technical difficulties, HF and IHD patients who performed cardiac rehabilitation using the vCare system had similar results compared to the ambulatory group, and better results compared to the control group.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph20053937","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,23]],"date-time":"2023-02-23T02:28:57Z","timestamp":1677119337000},"page":"3937","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":19,"title":["Assessing the Efficacy of a Virtual Assistant in the Remote Cardiac Rehabilitation of Heart Failure and Ischemic Heart Disease Patients: Case-Control Study of Romanian Adult Patients"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4067-2333","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andreea-Elena","family":"L\u0103craru","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy \u201cCarol Davila\u201d, Emergency Hospital \u201cBagdasar-Arseni\u201d, 050474 Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4678-9655","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"\u0218tefan-Sebastian","family":"Busnatu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy \u201cCarol Davila\u201d, Emergency Hospital \u201cBagdasar-Arseni\u201d, 050474 Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8520-6478","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria-Alexandra","family":"Pan\u0103","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy \u201cCarol Davila\u201d, Emergency Hospital \u201cBagdasar-Arseni\u201d, 050474 Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5355-0482","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gabriel","family":"Olteanu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy \u201cCarol Davila\u201d, Emergency Hospital \u201cBagdasar-Arseni\u201d, 050474 Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Liviu","family":"\u0218erb\u0103noiu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy \u201cCarol Davila\u201d, Emergency Hospital \u201cBagdasar-Arseni\u201d, 050474 Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2065-8523","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kai","family":"Gand","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Group Digital Health, Faculty of Business and Economics, Technische Universitat Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6513-9017","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hannes","family":"Schlieter","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Group Digital Health, Faculty of Business and Economics, Technische Universitat Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8841-6558","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sofoklis","family":"Kyriazakos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Business Development and Technology, Aarhus University, 7400 Aarhus, Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Octavian","family":"Ceban","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Economic Cybernetics and Informatics Department, University of Economic Studies, 010374 Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"C\u0103t\u0103lina Liliana","family":"Andrei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy \u201cCarol Davila\u201d, Emergency Hospital \u201cBagdasar-Arseni\u201d, 050474 Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5933-8549","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Crina-Julieta","family":"Sinescu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy \u201cCarol Davila\u201d, Emergency Hospital \u201cBagdasar-Arseni\u201d, 050474 Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"133","DOI":"10.1038\/s41569-021-00607-3","article-title":"Epidemiology of cardiovascular disease in Europe","volume":"19","author":"Townsend","year":"2022","journal-title":"Nat. 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