Virtual and Remote Cardiac Rehabilitation for Older Adults: Current Evidence and Implementation Strategies

To present and analyze recent developments in remote cardiac rehabilitation for older adults, review outcomes data regarding clinical effectiveness of these modalities, and discuss implementation strategies targeted at older adults. Data from recent studies enrolling older adults into remote cardiac rehabilitation programs have yielded mixed results with some showing encouraging improvements in functional capacity and quality of life comparable to those obtained with center-based rehabilitation programs. Studies that showed no improvement in outcomes identified decreased patient engagement as an important driver of results. This underscores the importance of adapting remote cardiac rehabilitation programs to the intended population and consider factors such as digital literacy that are relevant to older adults and critical for successful implementation of cardiac rehabilitation programs. Virtual and remote cardiac rehabilitation models continue to evolve and are important programs for providing secondary prevention for older adults but require an intentional approach when adapting for clinical practice.