A new study, "The Pre-Adaptation of a Stroke-Specific Self-Management Program Among Older Adults," used computer analysis to understand the health problems of older stroke patients with many illnesses. Based on what they found, they created stories to make a better self-management program for these patients. Authors included Timothy Reistetter, Kimberly Hreha, Julianna Dean, Monique Pappadis, Rachel Deer, Chih-Ying Li, Ickpyo Hong, Annalisa Na, Sara Nowakowski, Hashem Shaltoni, and Suresh Bhavnani.

In this scientific study, researchers wanted to help older stroke patients who have multiple health problems (called multimorbidity). They knew that regular self-management programs might not work well for these patients, so they decided to make changes based on what they learned from looking at data. They looked at information from Medicare claims for stroke patients who had to go back to the hospital within 90 days. They also looked at data for 72 different health issues that these patients had. Using special computer tools, they found that these patients could be split into five groups based on their health problems, like obesity or cancer. Then, they created six stories (vignettes) based on these five groups to help design a self-management program that fits better for older stroke survivors who have multiple health issues.