Less Supervising, More Caring: Design Recommendations for Informal Caregivers’ Co-Participation in Cardiac Telerehabilitation

Informal caregivers’ engagement with patient data is becoming increasingly central to CSCW and HCI research on health management. Cardiac telerehabilitation (CTR) technologies generate lifestyle and well-being data that support patients and their families in recovery management, yet informal caregivers’ roles in CTR remain underexplored. Recreational athletes in rehabilitation are an especially under-researched group, despite their and their support system’s unique needs. Focusing on caregivers of recreational athletes, we conducted interviews with ten participants and used six visual scenarios of a dyadic CTR system to explore their perspectives on data and information co-participation. Caregivers reported that co-participation could strengthen dyadic coping and management but emphasized the need to balance important trade-offs. We provide design recommendations for dyadic CTR systems that balance care needs and preferences, promoting caregiver involvement in a supportive, non-supervisory role. We contribute to CSCW research by proposing a conceptual shift in technology-mediated rehabilitation care: positioning caregiver-inclusive CTR systems as negotiation tools that support boundary work and balance competing care values.