Hands-on for Heart Failure: New Considerations for Cardiac Rehab

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Daniel E. Forman, MD: Hello. My name is Daniel Forman. I am a cardiologist based at the University of Pittsburgh and the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. In my clinical and research work, I have strong ties to cardiac rehabilitation and heart failure.

I'm here today with Gordon Reeves, my colleague and friend, to discuss cardiac rehabilitation and the recently published REHAB-HF trial.

Gordon R. Reeves, MD, MPT: Hi. I'm Gordon Reeves. I'm a heart failure cardiologist working at Novant Health in Charlotte, North Carolina. I also have a background as a physical therapist, and like Dan, I have been working in cardiac rehab for heart failure patients and other rehab interventions for heart failure patients as my primary research interests. [Editor's note: Dr Reeves was one of the investigators in the REHAB-HF trial.]

Forman: To introduce this topic, I want to emphasize that cardiac rehabilitation, overall, is a multifaceted program that provides patient education and healthy lifestyle modifications that include both diet and physical activity. It focuses on exercise training and risk factor reduction, stress reduction, and medication adherence. Again, it's multifaceted.

Eligibility for cardiac rehabilitation includes coronary artery disease and revascularization— both coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) — and it has expanded over many years to include other types of cardiac conditions, including heart transplant,