Patient education on a quantified supervised home-based exercise therapy to improve walking ability in patients with peripheral arterial disease and intermittent claudication

Cardiovascular disease represents a considerable economic burden to society and effective preventive measures are necessary. Behavioural interventions such as motivational interviewing increase compliance and self-efficacy. Our aim is to develop a supervised home-based exercise therapy for claudicant patients supported by ICT tools for self-monitoring as a key to changing long-term behaviour. Patients will be involved in an Individualized real-world walking environment exercise program in their residence area supported by a pervasive virtual assistant guiding them through a route designed with the help of a geographic information system integrated in a cloud based walking monitoring platform (the WalkingPAD platform).Our aim is to offer an accurate, efficient, inexpensive, and readily accessible program to promote compliance and accountability of peripheral vascular disease patients in improving walking distances and preventing catastrophic outcomes such as rest pain or amputation.