Virtual cardiac rehab for rural patients
Scott Lear, 778.782.7916 (Mon./Tues.), 604.682.2344 ext. 6277 (Wed./Thur.), salear@sfu.ca
Christa Hammons, study participant available for interviews, 604.938.0180 (Whistler resident)
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
Thanks to a $284,000 grant from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC and Yukon, a Simon Fraser University researcher is expanding on research that has found interactive internet-based cardiac rehabilitation can help save lives.
Cardiovascular disease is the number one consumer of health-care dollars and cause of death in Canada.
SFU kinesiologist Scott Lear and colleagues elsewhere discovered in a 2007 pilot project that delivering virtual cardiac rehab programs (vCRP) to people in their homes is as effective as hospital-based rehab programs.
Lear now is investigating more specifically the extent to which vCRP can improve the heart health and potentially save the lives of rural residents. They are the most likely to be hospitalized for chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, but can’t easily access cardio rehab programs (CRP) because rural hospitals don’t have them.
“Less than a quarter of eligible patients attend hospital-based CRP even though these programs reduce the risk of death from heart disease by 25 per cent,” notes Lear. “Geographical distance from hospital-based CRP is the main reason why people don’t participate.”
A professor in SFU’s department of biomedical physiology and kinesiology, Lear is halfway through recruiting 74 cardio vascular disease sufferers living in Prince George, Whistler, Squamish and on the Sunshine Coast for his latest study.
vCRP participants have access to one-on-one chat sessions with a nurse, dietitian and exercise specialist, downloadable exercise heart-rate monitoring, education, and data monitoring of their blood pressure, weight and glucose.
The smaller 2007 study analysed the impact of vCRP on 15 people who were on a waiting list to receive CRP at St. Paul’s Hospital. The study found that their exercise capacity, a key marker of heart health improvement, was nearly double that of a control group’s after 12 weeks. Their cholesterol, blood pressure and body weight improvements were comparable to those of hospital-based CRP participants.
—30— (electronic photo file and vCRP participant available for interview)