Do not lose the focus on CR in the COVID-19 era

It has been more than a year since the pandemic was announced and, in the beginning, nobody could predict what challenges both healthcare specialists and patients would face. While the main focus was to prevent and to manage COVID-19, other fields were missed, i.e., one of them – rehabilitation. However, Marco Ambrosetti, from northern Italy, has worked since the early stages of the pandemic to promote providing cardiovascular rehabilitation in the COVID-19 era. Patients should be referred to cardiovascular rehabilitation for post-acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and post-primary angioplasty to chronic heart failure and cardiac transplantation. Moreover, telerehabilitation is one of “the best solutions for continuing cardiovascular rehabilitation activities nevertheless, while essential, it still needs specific optimisation and cannot be provided to all patients”. While rehabilitation programmes can be revised and adapted to the new reality it is important not to stop referring cardiovascular patients.

One of the future perspectives is to find new solutions depending on the COVID-19 situation; in particular how to manage and provide rehabilitation to patients in the safest way and without losing all of the benefits of secondary prevention and rehabilitation.