Home-based cardiac telerehabilitation after coronary events: A short communication on emerging evidence and implications for cardiovascular physiotherapy practice

Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a guideline-endorsed, physiotherapist-delivered intervention that reduces cardiovascular mortality and hospital readmission after coronary events, yet global referral and completion rates remain low.Home-based cardiac telerehabilitation (HBCTR), delivered through mobile health (mHealth) platforms, wearable sensors, and remote monitoring, has become one of the most actively studied strategies for closing this participation gap.This short communication synthesises recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses comparing HBCTR with centre-based cardiac rehabilitation (CBCR) in coronary heart disease and heart failure, outlines the shift toward hybrid and technology-enabled delivery models, and discusses implications for cardiovascular physiotherapy practice.Recent pooled analyses show that health-supported HBCTR produces clinically meaningful gains in peak oxygen uptake and six-minute walk distance compared with usual care, with effects broadly comparable to centre-based programmes, and that wearable-sensor-assisted models modestly outperform centre-based rehabilitation on cardiorespiratory fitness in some analyses.Evidence in heart failure populations remains more heterogeneous.We argue that cardiovascular physiotherapy services should adopt stratified, hybrid CR pathways that match delivery mode to patient risk and preference, rather than treating home-based and centre-based rehabilitation as separate, competing services.