Why Aren't Clinicians Referring Patients to Cardiac Rehab?

For: Medscape

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for US men and women, but a powerful tool available to help treat and reverse the trajectory of cardiovascular disease remains significantly underutilized and might even be a model of care to treat other chronic diseases.

Traditional cardiac rehabilitation (TCR) and intensive cardiac rehabilitation (ICR) are physician-supervised, team-based, whole person approaches to post–coronary event care. TCR typically involves customized outpatient treatment plans. For a total of 36 sessions, patients participate in physical activity group sessions and education about other lifestyle behaviors, such as diet, stress management, or use of risky substances. ICR goes further by engaging patients for 72 sessions and providing more nutrition guidance, cooking instruction, stress management, and social support. Lifestyle medicine-trained clinicians may favor ICR as a model that aligns with their knowledge of the large role of nutrition and the other pillars of lifestyle medicine at the root of cardiovascular conditions.

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