What is cardiac rehabilitation?
Unique to CardioQinetics, we pride ourselves in providing a full comprehensive cardiac service from prevention to rehabilitation - thanks to our strong collaboration with our dedicated team of Chartered Physiotherapists and Allied Health Professionals at our sister clinic PhysioQinetics. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defined cardiac rehabilitation as "the sum of activity and interventions required to ensure the best possible physical, mental, and social conditions so that patients with chronic or post-acute cardiovascular disease may, by their own efforts, preserve or resume their proper place in society and lead an active life".
Who benefits from cardiac rehabilitation?
Dr Chai has recently written an blog article on the concept of Complete Rehabilitation / Prehabilitation and how this is applied to cardiac rehabilitation.
In essence, cardiac rehabilitation is now an integral part of the treatment pathway offered to patients with different heart diseases. It is widely applied in the recovery of patients after heart attacks, but increasingly we are seeing benefits of cardiac rehabilitation in patients in stable coronary disease either treated by medicine alone, or after coronary stent implantation. Another classic group of patients that will benefit from cardiac rehabilitation are those who underwent coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG). Lately, we are increasing the utilisation of cardiac rehabilitation in our heart failure patients as well.
Phases of cardiac rehabilitation:-
- Phase 1 - usually take place whilst you are still in hospital. This usually involves speaking with a doctor or specialist nurse to identify and highlight what changes you can make to help your recovery, steps you can take to facilitate resuming an active lifestyle or return to work.
- Phase 2 - led by cardiac rehabilitation team in the community, usually a week or so after your discharge from hospital. There is a strong educational component here giving you an opportunity to ask questions and discuss concern. Your medication will be reviewed and optimised according to you individual response. You will be then be risk-stratified and invited to attend a rehabilitation programme.
- Phase 3 - this is an organised, supervised programme. The core focus is a stepwise-graded exercise programme, supported by a simultaneous programme on lifestyle management, psychosocial support in adaptation, dietary improvement, delivered by a team of allied health professionals. All aiming to facilitate your recovery and rebuild / enhance your cardiovascular fitness and confidence in the most timely manner.
- Phase 4 - this is the maintenance phase of cardiac rehab focusing on how to maintain long-term lifestyle changes identified and initiated in Phase 3.
What is our approach to cardiac rehabilitation?
Unique to us at CardioQinetics, we can provide our cardiac service from prevention, to diagnosis, to treatment, as well as to rehabilitation, through our team of expert Chartered Physiotherapists and Allied Health Professionals. We call this our CaRe (Cardiac Rehabilitation) programme. If Dr Chai feels you may benefit from cardiac rehabilitation, we can arrange our team of experts to see you at our Uxbridge clinic and provide a tailored programme for your complete rehabilitation. In this holistic approach, Dr Chai and his team can provide the best continuity of care and our CaRe programme share the core values of preventive cardiology programme to reduce your cardiovascular risks for any future cardiac event.