Co-designing a digital health intervention to support compassionate survivorship care after cardiac arrest

Each year, 60,000 Canadians suffer sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). Survival is challenging and the recovery journey can be fraught with anxiety, confusion, lack of connection and changes to all aspects of life. To date, the focus has been on clinical survival, with a lack of understanding and compassion towards helping survivors and their families navigate life after cardiac arrest. Katie’s research focuses on co-designing a digital health application to provide compassionate support to this vulnerable population. The co-design approach of her methods makes sure that the voices of survivors and family members are the focus of everything we do. Being awarded the AMS Fellowship will allow her to lead the work needed to understand how the intersection of compassionate care and digital health approaches will advance our ability to truly change survivorship for SCA survivors and their families.