Fully remote versus hybrid supervision of pulmonary telerehabilitation in COVID-19: a randomized clinical trial.
Bruna S Vian, Lígia S Ratti, Mariangela R Resende and 2 others
PMID 39704643WHAT IT FOUND
Fully remote and hybrid supervision produced similar walk distance after pulmonary telerehabilitation.
Both groups improved, and gains remained at follow-up.
Key findings
01In the randomized comparison, fully remote supervision and hybrid supervision produced similar walk distance after pulmonary telerehabilitation.
02Both supervision groups improved walk distance, and the improvement was maintained at follow-up.
03Patients who participated in telerehabilitation had a larger increase in walk distance than patients who did not receive the program.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Many eligible patients could not enter the rehabilitation program because pandemic restrictions limited capacity. A large proportion dropped out, and only patients who completed telerehabilitation were analyzed in the randomized comparison. The study did not reach the planned sample size for the randomized comparison, so it may not detect a difference between remote and hybrid supervision. The comparison with non-intervention patients was observational, not randomized. The participants came from a public hospital in Brazil and included many patients with low household income or only primary education, which may limit generalizability to other settings.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest with any financial organization. The study was funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation and the Fund for the Support of Education, Research and Extension.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that fully remote supervision is better than hybrid or face-to-face pulmonary rehabilitation. The randomized trial compared fully remote with hybrid supervision and found similar walk-distance results, and the study did not reach its planned sample size.