Adaptive Home Based Pulmonary Tele-exercise

Studies have shown that pulmonary rehabilitation, which includes exercise and patient education, is a valuable therapy for patients with pulmonary diseases. In fact, pulmonary rehabilitation delivered soon after patient discharge is known to produce a major improvement in patient outcomes. Specifically, studies have shown this intervention reduces readmission rates by 30-70% over the next year. In addition, this therapy improves exercise tolerance, performance of tasks of daily living and sense of patient well being. One study even shows this therapy is 30 times as effective as bronchodilator therapy in improving patient outcomes.

Surprisingly, however, very few pulmonary patients receive pulmonary rehabilitation. Recent studies have shown that 94-98% of discharged pulmonary patients fail to receive this therapy. This pattern has been shown to exist across the United States, with no state demonstrating a much larger use of this therapy. Moreover, use of this therapy is even worse for minorities (only 1% receive pulmonary rehabilitation) and rural populations, such as patients in southern and eastern Kentucky. Several factors are responsible for this failure to employ pulmonary rehabilitation including: (a) very few centers are available and patients cannot realistically travel to the existing centers because of distance, (b) this form of rehabilitation is expensive and patients must pay a large copay (30-50 dollars per session, adding up to a total of 1800 dollars for a typical 12 week program) which many patients cannot afford, (c) centers are only open for restricted hours and working patients cannot miss work to go for rehabilitation, and (d) patients are only eligible for 36 treatment sessions for life.

The purpose of the present project is to define a new home based exercise program that should provide exercise training as good or better than conventional brick and mortar rehabilitation programs. The investigators will use technological advances in home based exercise equipment to both precisely measure participant exercise and to assess physiological improvements over time. This technology will also reduce the expense required to supervise participant training, dramatically reducing costs compared to conventional center based programs. In addition, because programs are home based, the investigators can provide access to participants in rural locations, reduce travel, and easily extend the convenience and schedule of training sessions to accommodate participant lifestyles. While recently there have been a few attempts to provide home based pulmonary rehabilitation programs (e.g. by VA rural health, the Southern Alabama consortium) these other programs do not provide the intensity of training possible with the new paradigm in the current project, are not proven to have the same beneficial effects as conventional center based rehabilitation, and have higher personnel costs making long term financial viability uncertain.

Inclusion criteria

• age from 18-80 years
• previous diagnosis of pulmonary disease, including known chronic pulmonary diseases (COPD, ILD), recent admission for pulmonary disease (pneumonia, asthma, obstructive lung disease), recent ICU discharge for a diagnosis of respiratory failure, and/or previous COVID-19 disease with demonstration of recovery (two negative antigen tests)
• the capacity to perform cycling exercise

Exclusion criteria

• if the physician caring for the patient determines that the patient should not participate in a home based exercise program
• if the patient has active ischemic cardiac disease
• if the patient's home does not have sufficient space or internet connectivity for the computer and bicycle to be operative
• if the patient is a pregnant female
• if the patient is a prisoner
• if the patient is institutionalized
• if the patient has a terminal clinical condition.