An app to help people recover from Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD)
SCAD is a relatively rare, but serious heart event. The SCAD Warrior app was created to help patients recover from SCAD. The app is based on scientific information about SCAD, evidence about what helps people recover from health conditions, surveys of SCAD survivors, and strategies that have been used effectively with SCAD survivors in face to face interventions.
Get the SCAD Warrior App now!
Follow these steps to get the app:
1. Visit https://app.scadwarrior.com/ from your smartphone or mobile device.
2. Install the app by using your browser's "Add to home screen" feature.
3. You're done!
If you need help on adding the app to your home screen, follow these directions:
About the app
The SCAD Warrior app contains valuable information about SCAD written by highly qualified experts in the medical and mental health fields. Users can watch videos about SCAD, read about evidence based treatments and procedures, and receive advice, ideas and strategies that can help with recovery.
The app was created by a team of doctors and psychologists from the University of Colorado, Stanford School of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the SCAD Alliance. The intent of the app is to help patients learn how to: navigate a new reality, manage stress, identify values, maintain healthy relationships with others, and practice self care behaviorally, cognitively, emotionally, and physically.
How to use the app
The SCAD Warrior app has three main parts: a collection of digital therapy sessions, a journal, and a set of wellness exercises. Users are encouraged to engage with all three parts.
Sessions
There are fifteen sessions in the app. The sessions contain the majority of the information about recovering from SCAD. Each session is centered around a particular topic related to SCAD. Some sessions are informational, like the introductory "SCAD 101" session. Other sessions encourage the user to be reflective, like the "Values and Meaning in Life" session.
Each session is made up of a reading, a video, and an activity. The reading is a short piece of informational text designed to educate the reader on the session's topic; the video is often a message from a doctor, psychologist, or other qualified professional; and the activity is a simple, interactive page that helps the user process the session's information in a meaningful way.
Users are encouraged to complete all of the sessions by looking over the reading, watching the video, and participating in the exercise. Users can work through the sessions in any order and at their own pace.
Journal
The journal is a place where users can record their recovery experiences and look back on their progress in the app. Users can write entries in the journal and track their mood. Completed sessions and exercises are saved to the journal for later review. The journal is a great place for survivors to catalog their experiences and serves as a powerful reflection tool.
Installing the app to your home screen
To get started, choose your device's platform in the box below, watch the video, and try it out for yourself.
Note: The SCAD Warrior app is not available in the Apple Appstore or the Google Play store. It is available directly from your browser! This feature is built into Safari for iOS devices and into Chrome for Android devices. This feature does not work on Firefox or Microsoft Edge. You can always use the SCAD Warrior app right inside your browser of choice though.
Help!
Please understand that this app was developed with limited resources on a more or less "volunteer" basis by the contributors listed below. If you are having trouble with the app, please try the following:
- read all of the instructions on this page again
- try restarting your device
- 'clear the cache' for this website and also for https://app.scadwarrior.com - you can find instructions on how to clear the cache for your browser by Googling
- try uninstalling the app, clearing the cache, and then re-installing the app
- ask a friend, family member, child, or someone else who is good at troubleshooting these things
If you are having trouble accessing your account:
- tap the "forgot password" link on the app's auth page and follow the instructions
- just create a new account
If you still have a problem, need to report a bug, or would like to contact any member of the team, please email scadhealthapp@gmail.com
About the authors
The SCAD Warrior app was created by a team of psychologists, medical doctors, and other experts from the SCAD community. Each of them is listed here:
