2ARTs: A Platform for Exercise Prescriptions in Cardiac Recovery Patients

Due to limited access, increasing costs and an ageing population, the global healthcare system faces significant coverage problems that call for innovative approaches. Health professionals are actively seeking alternative methods to provide care to an increasingly needy population, without increasing human effort and associated costs. eHealth platforms, which use technology to provide patient care, are emerging as transformative solutions for addressing these problems. This study is centered on the demand for a Decision Support System (DSS) in cardiology to enable doctors to prescribe individualized care inside Cardiac Rehabilitation Programmes (CRPs). The 2ARTs project’s main objective is to include a cardiac rehabilitation platform with a DSS within the hospital infrastructure. This DSS uses models to classify patients into different groups, delivering crucial information to assist with decisions regarding treatment. Regarding the DSS, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) emerged as a standout technique for dimensionality reduction, due to its interoperability with clustering algorithms and superior evaluation metrics. The most appropriate clustering technique was determined to be the K-means algorithm, which was supported by the experts analysis. In accordance with the goals of the 2ARTs project, this integration of PCA and K-means provides meaningful insights that improve reasoned decision-making.