The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the Thrombosis Foundation are starting a new home rehabilitation program for pulmonary embolism patients.
Every year, more than twelve thousand people in the Netherlands develop a pulmonary embolism. That is a form of thrombosis. Half of these patients suffer from long-term physical and mental complaints. For example, patients can no longer do their job properly and end up in social isolation.
The quality of life must be improved with the home rehabilitation. “Immediately after the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, we will activate patients in their home situation to exercise and live a healthy life, so that they can return to work faster, drop out less and feel fitter,” says co-developer Erik Klok of the LUMC.
The LUMC has developed the rehabilitation program in collaboration with Amsterdam UMC, Maastricht University and ProCare. The program is designed with a bicycle ergometer, which measures the patient’s exertion. The patient, doctor and physiotherapist can see the results on a specially designed dashboard. “This makes it possible to work together in an accessible way on good rehabilitation,” writes the LUMC.
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