Evaluation of the use of a monitoring application for rehabilitation in users of the Unique Health System (SUS)

Abstract

Patients who had severe COVID-19 may need guidance after hospital discharge in order to recover their functionality, as well as to learn how to proceed with self-management of any sequelae. Cardiopulmonary rehabilitation programs can improve cardiorespiratory fitness and recovery after hospitalization. The restrictions imposed by the pan-demic require remotely supervised training modalities to be applied, and the facilitated use of electronic devices, social media and the internet are very useful tools. Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility of using a remote exercise training monitoring application within a pulmonary telerehabilitation program in patients who were hospitalized for COVID-19 in patients treated by the Unified Health System (SUS). Evaluate the app's advantages and limitations, as well as adherence to the app's use and level of patient satisfaction; assess the level of satisfaction and limitations of the telerehabilitation program. Methods: Prospective, observational, unicentric study, which will be carried out at the Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy service of the Hospital de Clínicas da Unicamp. All patients over 18 years old who participate in the project "Pulmonary telerehabilitation program for patients with COVID after hospital discharge" by doctoral student Bruna Scharlack Vian will be included. After the period of participation in the program, an online questionnaire will be completed once. This instrument contains 28 questions and seeks to identify the main factors limiting the use of the remote monitoring application, in addition to determining which were the items that impacted or not on patient adherence to participation in the telerespiratory cardiorehabilitation program. The responsible academic will apply all the questionnaires proposed in this study, as well as the compilation and analysis of the collected data. For data analysis, the hypothesis that the use of an application to monitor vital signs, duration and exercise performance, is a viable tool for supervision and monitoring of post-COVID patients during participation in a cardiorespiratory telerehabilitation program will be tested. (AU)