Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) Care Wheel: A Stakeholder- and Theory-Driven Framework to Improve Specialized Adult Congenital Heart Disease Care
Authors' conclusion
The ACHD Care Wheel is a stakeholder-derived, theory-grounded framework for developing and evaluating interventions to improve ACHD care. Interventions targeting the three priority categories (healthcare system and institutional structure, knowledge and education, and sources of support) are likely to produce effects across multiple domains simultaneously, offering a theoretically grounded path forward for this growing population.
Study context
- Population
- ACHD patients and clinicians from UCSF and across the United States; patients were ≥18 years, spoke English or Spanish, and could provide informed consent; clinicians were cardiologists or other staff involved in ACHD careparticipants interviewed · patients 37 · clinicians 17
- Participants
- 54 patients
- Outcome
- Barriers and facilitators to specialized care: categories
Methodological detailspurposively sampled, inductive coding and rapid qualitative analysis, independent dual coding, consensus resolution, concurrent analysis, member checking, Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behavior (COM-B)-informed guides
- Purposively sampled
- Inductive coding and rapid qualitative analysis
- Independent dual coding
- Consensus resolution
- Concurrent analysis
- Member checking
- COM-B-informed guides
Recommendations
As reported in the abstract
- Findings were organized into six interdependent categories: healthcare system and institutional structure; knowledge and education; sources of support; personal development; identity and personal resources; and ACHD’s placement in one's life
Further findings
Novel findings
- A paradoxical facilitating role of parental language barriers
- The complex impact of caregiver support on patients' independent care skills
Framework developed
- ACHD Care Wheel, a theory-guided framework to support the design and evaluation of future interventions
Patient characteristics
- Median age, patients
- 32 years
- Women, patients
- 57%
- People of color, patients
- 62%
- Gaps in care of ≥3 years, patients
- 35%
Original publication
ACHD Care Wheel: A Stakeholder- and Theory-Driven Framework to Improve Specialized Adult Congenital Heart Disease Care. Circ Popul Health Outcomes. Published 2 November 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →