The impact of a gamified engagement toolkit on heart failure registry participation: results of the Engage-HF study
Open Access
- 7 April 2026
- journal article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing
- Vol. 25 (6) , 1232-1240
Abstract
Aims: This study aims to evaluate the impact of a gamified engagement toolkit on registration rates and data completeness in a real-world registry. Methods and results: Engage-HF is a prospective, observational pre-test–post-test exploratory concept study involving 31 hospitals participating in the Netherlands Heart Registration-Heart Failure (NHR-HF) registry: 12 that were technically ready and willing to participate formed the intervention group, while the remaining 19 NHR-HF hospitals served as controls. In the intervention group, 28 HF nurse specialists participated in a 24-week educational programme using the Engage-HF toolkit. The primary endpoint was participation, measured by a performance index (average number of patients registered per hospital per month) at the end of the intervention and at the 3- and 6-month post-test. The secondary endpoint was data completeness, and an exploratory analysis evaluated participants’ experiences with the toolkit and its impact on their HF registries and 2021 ESC HF guideline knowledge. The intervention group showed a numerically higher performance index at the end of the intervention (5.2 vs. 2.1 patients/hospital/month, P = 0.41) and at the 3-month post-test (4.4 vs. 2.9 patients/hospital/month, P = 0.45). However, at the 6-month post-test, the performance index was higher in the control group (3.3 vs. 4.0 patients/hospital/month, P = 0.98). Data completeness was high in both groups, with variable-specific differences without a clear pattern. Participants rated the toolkit positively as an educational toolkit but reported neutral impacts on HF registries or 2021 ESC HF guideline knowledge. Conclusion: The Engage-HF toolkit was well received and may boost short-term participation but did not improve long-term participation or the already high data completeness.Keywords
Funding Information
- Erasmus Medisch Centrum
- Heart4Data consortium
- ZonMw
- AstraZeneca Mölndal
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
- Gamification and its Potential for Better Engagement in the Management of Heart Failure or Quality of Care Registries: A ViewpointCurrent Heart Failure Reports, 2024
- Design and rationale of the Engage-HF study: the impact of a gamified engagement toolkit on participation and engagement in a heart failure registryEuropean Heart Journal - Digital Health, 2024
- Guideline Implementation, Drug Sequencing, and Quality of Care in Heart Failure: Design and Rationale of TITRATE-HFESC Heart Failure, 2023
- Regional Management of Worsening Heart Failure: Rationale and Design of the CHAIN-HF RegistryESC Heart Failure, 2023
- Using gamification to enhance clinical trial start-up activitiesJournal of Clinical and Translational Science, 2022
- Gamification of health professions education: a systematic reviewAdvances in Health Sciences Education, 2020
- Association of diuretic treatment at hospital discharge in patients with heart failure with all-cause short- and long-termmortality: A propensity score-matched analysis from SwedeHFInternational Journal of Cardiology, 2018
- A systematic review of gamification in e-HealthJournal of Biomedical Informatics, 2017
- “The Heart Game”: Using Gamification as Part of a Telerehabilitation Program for Heart PatientsGames for Health Journal, 2016
- Characteristics and in-hospital outcomes for nonadherent patients with heart failure: Findings from Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure (GWTG-HF)American Heart Journal, 2009