HOME-BASED CARDIAC REHABILITATION—Helping Patients Help Themselves offers a simple, but powerful, invaluable resource for cardiac rehabilitation professionals and patients alike. Based on current science and proven medical therapies, this one-of-a-kind booklet provides the advice and guidelines appropriate for safe and effective at-home cardiac rehabilitation programs. Written by two world-renowned leaders in preventive cardiology and rehabilitation, this easy-to-read booklet explains how after suffering from a major cardiovascular event, individuals can begin the journey for recovery within the safety and comfort of their own home.
The need for a booklet like Home-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation has been exceptionally apparent during these virus-troubled times. The continuing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has been especially devastating to outpatient, exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation programs, most of which have been temporarily closed. In reality, many cardiac rehabilitation programs remain only partially open with limited patient volumes and varied restrictions (e.g., staff and exercising patients wearing masks, mandated social distancing, extensive equipment sanitizing). The lingering pandemic-related restraints, including attendant job/income losses and associated social isolation (“stay home, stay safe”), are particularly devastating to patients with cardiovascular disease, given that these will likely increase sitting time and restrict physical activity, promote unhealthy nutritional practices, and decrease quality of life and psychosocial well-being. Collectively, these participation impediments and COVID consequences have revealed an “Achilles heel” in outpatient cardiac rehabilitation programming. Home-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation addresses that shortcoming.
Why home-based cardiac rehab? The answer is relatively straightforward, in that it:
- Provides a viable option for individuals who are unable to attend a cardiac rehab program at a traditional facility.
- Offers a setting that can be supportive and reassuring in these uncertain times.
- Increases the likelihood that the patient will adhere to healthy eating patterns, and a regular program of exercising.
- Features a potentially less-stressful environment in which to undertake cardiac rehab.
- Improves functional capacity and reduces coronary risk.
Home-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation is designed to give individuals who are interested in taking responsibility for their own health, with regard to the prevention of and recovery from coronary heart disease, a useful tool for enhancing their level of well-being. This exceptional patient-oriented resource also includes access to a free online educational video that was developed to complement and enhance the text. The video is available at https://healthylearning.com/home-based-cardiac-rehabilitation/ (scroll to the bottom of the page to view the video), as well as at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjEX-jFvjoEGDcJSJpLcaJw
Both authors of Home-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation are acknowledged experts in cardiac rehabilitation. Barry A. Franklin, PhD, currently serves as Director, Preventive Cardiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation, Beaumont Health, Royal Oak, Michigan, as well as Professor, Internal Medicine, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine. Previously, he served as president of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation and the American College of Sports Medicine. Dr. Franklin is a past editor in chief of the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention and currently holds formal editorial board appointments with 15 other scientific and clinical journals. Weimo Zhu, PhD, is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. An internationally known scholar in kinesmetrics, Dr. Zhu’s primary research interests are in the study and application of new measurement theories and statistical models/methods to the field of kinesiology. He has published extensively in SCI/SSCI journals and his research has been well supported by external grants, including NIH and RWJF.
