Until now, exercise programs have always taken place in the hospital, in the physiotherapy department. Patients had to come to the hospital two to three times every week for three months. Technological developments have made home rehabilitation possible made. The exercise program is followed at home, with remote supervision.
The benefits for the patient are obvious. Not only do they now have to travel to the hospital less often, with the home rehabilitation program they also have direct access to their data and progress and thus control the treatment, personal guidance and relapse prevention.
Is home rehabilitation equally effective?
The aim of Rutger Brouwers’ research was to find out which form of therapy is now better; home rehabilitation or hospital. That is why he set up the Smartcare CAD study at the Máxima MC. “Unfortunately, after intensive supervision, patients often revert to their old lifestyle; while improving lifestyle significantly reduces the risk of new heart disease. Therefore, there is an urgent need for innovative rehabilitation methods that ensure that more patients participate and that contribute to the retention of its positive effects for longer. With the SmartCare-CAD study, we wanted to investigate whether training at home under remote supervision has more effect than training in the hospital,” says Brouwers.
The study focused only on the exercise program in physiotherapy. It was determined by lottery which participants would receive the home treatment and who would physically come to the hospital for the treatment. The participants who were eligible for home rehabilitation had to follow the first six training sessions in the hospital, under the supervision of a physiotherapist. They then trained at home for three months, using wearable sensors.
The rehabilitation and training goals were tracked online on a personalized platform. There the data about the patient’s training was uploaded and the patient could consult and adjust his progress. The physiotherapist was in weekly contact with the patients via a video consultation to discuss progress and provide feedback. They were then monitored remotely for another 9 months. After 1 year, the two treatments were compared. A total of 300 heart patients participated in this study.
Both methods work well
The study showed that both the patients who exercised at home and the patients who exercised in the hospital, after a year are more physically fit, experience a higher quality of life, are less depressed and can live better in their daily lives. deal with their condition. There were no significant differences between the two groups. The same was true for patient satisfaction.
In addition, it was also found that relapse prevention is not necessary in patients with a low risk of new heart problems. “As with other studies on telerehabilitation, mainly relatively young men with a low risk of new heart problems participated in our study. This may explain why we also saw little relapse in physical activity. For future research, it is important to find out how we can also enthuse other patient groups, who may start to exercise less over time, for telerehabilitation”, says Brouwers. The results of the research are published in het Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The application of information and communication technology in healthcare is promising. Digital interventions are just as effective as regular face-to-face contacts. Thanks to ‘remote care’, the number of physical visits by patients in the hospital is declining. Especially for chronically ill patients, this contributes to better care with more control. The Vitality Center of MMC develops multidisciplinary innovative programs, supported by technology, that stimulate patients to better self-management and sustainable maintenance of a healthy lifestyle.
Opening event 2021
Would you also like to attend the ICT&health Opening Manifestation on 17 June 2021? Tickets are free, but it’s really gone! So don’t wait and sign up quickly.
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