Feasibility & Effect of a Tele-rehabilitation Program in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF)

Introduction Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive fibrotic lung disease of unknown cause with a median survival of 3-5 years. As the disease progresses, worsening of lung function and gas exchange impairment cause hypoxemia during physical activity leading to a downward spiral; dyspnea and fatigue lead to a reduction in daily physical activities, exercise tolerance, muscle strength and quality of life. Problems reported by IPF patients are social isolation, increased level of dependency and immobility. There is no curative treatment for IPF, but pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is recommended by expert opinion for the majority of IPF patients in order to improve quality of life and exercise tolerance. There are, however, no official PR programs for IPF patients and they therefore either participate in PR programs patients with chronic obstructive lung diseases (COPD) or train by themselves in fitness centers without guidance. PR for COPD is mostly offered in specialized clinics with an average duration of 8 weeks. Not all patients with IPF are fit for these programs or want to participate in an extensive external program due to, among other reasons, distance to the clinic. Tele-rehabilitation may offer these patients an alternative. New technologies in healthcare that can treat patients from a distance are implemented in these years. Tele-rehabilitation has been shown to be feasible in patients with lymphedema, COPD, orthopedic diseases (lower back, knee and shoulder). To ensure that all IPF patients are offered the possibility to participate in IPF specific rehabilitation programs, even though they live far away from expert ILD centers, tele-rehabilitation might be an alternative to participation in COPD rehabilitation programs. There have so far been no studies on the feasibility effect of tele-rehabilitation in IPF. Aim To assess the feasibility and effect of tele-rehabilitation with a new and innovative TR platform (NITRP) compared to standard tr