Prospective Evaluation of the Effect of Smartphone Electrocardiogram Usage on Anticoagulant Medication Compliance: Results of the Better Outcomes of Anticoagulation Therapy by Observation of Atrial Rhythm (BOAT-OAR) Study

ABSTRACT Introduction: Compliance with anticoagulation treatment for atrial fibrillation is highly variable. Smartphone electrocardiograms that allow patients to have greater insight into their arrhythmia burden may improve anticoagulant compliance. Methods: Patients were enrolled if they had atrial fibrillation with a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 2 or more, were eligible for anticoagulation and had a smartphone. Participants were randomly assigned to receive a smartphone electrocardiogram (AliveCor, Kardia) to record their electrocardiograms 5 times/week or to the control group. All patients received 6 months of anticoagulant (apixaban) dispensed as 1-month pre-loaded pill boxes. Results: A total of 100 patients were enrolled from July 2017 to August 2019, but 5 patients in the monitor arm and 1 in the control arm withdrew prematurely. The monitor and control groups did not differ in age, gender, CHA2DS2-VASc score, or comorbidities. Median medication compliance was 99.7%, with non-significantly greater compliance in the monitor group (100%) than in the control group (99.7%) (p-value=0.247). There was also no significant difference between missing any dose and use/nonuse of the smartphone monitor (48.9% vs. 55.1%; p-value=0.692). Mean monitor compliance was 86.8% ±14.0% with an average of 4.34 recorded electrocardiograms per week. Monitor group patients with perfect medication compliance had significantly higher monitor compliance than those patients who missed doses (median, 95.3% vs 86.7%; p-value=0.02). Conclusions: In a study population with higher-than-expected medication compliance, the use of smartphone electrocardiogram did not demonstrate an improvement in medication compliance as compared to usual care. Greater monitor compliance was associated with greater medication compliance.