title: Telerehabilitation for patients with heart failure.
abstract: Heart failure is a chronic and progressive condition that is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates. Even though cardiac rehabilitation (CR) has been shown to be beneficial to heart failure patients, only a very small proportion of them will actually be referred and eventually participate. The low participation rate is due in part to accessibility and travel difficulties. Telerehabilitation is a new approach in the rehabilitation field that allows patients to receive a complete rehabilitation program at home in a safe manner and under adequate supervision. We believe that by increasing accessibility to CR, telerehabilitation programs will significantly improve heart failure patients' functional capacity and quality of life. However, it is crucial to provide policy makers with evidence-based data on cardiac telerehabilitation if we want to see its successful implementation in heart failure patients.
authors.affiliation: 1 Research Centre on Aging, University Institute of Geriatrics of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada ; 2 Department of Medicine (Cardiology), Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS), Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tousignant
authors.affiliation: 1 Research Centre on Aging, University Institute of Geriatrics of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada ; 2 Department of Medicine (Cardiology), Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS), Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Warner Mbuila
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Mampuya
keywords: Telerehabilitation; cardiac rehabilitation (CR); hearth failure