Does telemedicine-based cardiac rehabilitation improve risk factors and exercise monitoring compared to conventional rehabilitation in patients eligible for phase II cardiac rehabilitation?
Telemedicine-based cardiac rehabilitation is as effective as conventional rehabilitation for risk factor modification and exercise monitoring over 12 weeks.
We studied patients who were eligible for phase II cardiac rehabilitation. Rehabilitation was delivered either conventionally or by telemedicine using videoconferencing. There were 226 participants: 173 at the conventional site and 53 at the telemedicine site. At baseline, blood pressure, anthropometric measurements, lipid profiles, activity levels, dietary intake and behaviours were assessed. Assessments at baseline were repeated after 12 weeks, at the end of the rehabilitation programme. There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) in the change from baseline to post-programme values between the conventional and the telemedicine groups. The results show the suitability of telemedicine for delivering cardiac rehabilitation for risk factor modification and exercise monitoring to patients who otherwise would not have access to it.
Dalleck et al. (Wed,) studied this question.