title: The challenge of designing a post-critical illness rehabilitation intervention.
abstract: Post-ICU morbidity is an important issue for patients, families, and the health-care system. Elliott and colleagues outlined the results from their novel report of the very first home-based physiotherapy program to be tested in survivors of critical illness. The authors described an explicit intervention, which included a self-instruction exercise manual, trainer visits, and telephone follow-up, with excellent internal validity and yet no difference in outcome measures at 26-week follow-up. These results are discussed in the context of risk stratification/individual tailoring of post-ICU programs to patient and family needs and suggest that the collection of multiple simultaneous outcome measures across functional, neuropsychological, caregiver, and health-care utilization domains may offer additional insight into the benefits of post-rehabilitation programs.
authors: Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care, University of Toronto, University Health Network, 585 University Avenue, 11C-1180, Toronto, ON M5G 2C4, Canada. margaret.herridge@uhn.on.ca
authors: Margaret S
authors: MS
authors: Herridge
mesh_terms: D016638:Critical Illness / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D020127:Recovery of Function