Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation. If cardiopulmonary rehabilitation is included
within the “telerehabilitation” umbrella, this may be the largest current application
of telerehabilitation. The need is staggering, both for rehabilitation following
an episode (e.g., open heart myocardial revascularization, myocardial infarction)
where there are over one million new survivors per year in US, and for persons
with chronic conditions (e.g., 4.9 million persons in US with congestive heart
failure, 16 million with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Post-traumatic
and post-surgical intervention typically includes only a few days as inpatients. Many
tertiary care facilities now serve clients in need of significant cardiopulmonary
rehabilitation. Most receive intervention as outpatients and/or through community/home
programs, which include aggressive use of exercise rehabilitation, medication,
behavior modification (e.g., diet), and management of secondary complications;
evidence supporting the benefits of exercise programs for these populations continues
to mount (90). These areas represent some of the primary targets for many telehomecare
programs, which may include both a telesupport/teleeducation program and selected
sensor-based telemonitoring (e.g., vital signs). On the high end, a transtelephonic
telemonitoring product suite does exist that targets interactive exercise telerehab
for cardiopulmonary patients (91).