Smart Telehealth Exercise Intervention to Reduce COPD Readmissions

This is a prospective randomized controlled study to test the hypothesis that neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) and remote pulmonary rehabilitation at home offered via a smart technology, called Smart TeleHealth, results in a reduction of systemic inflammation, via reduction of skeletal muscle tissue inflammation, and thereby improves functional capacity, and thus, reduces the rate of readmissions following hospitalization for acute exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This study will enroll up to 40 participants at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), about 30 will get Smart Telehealth and NMES, and 10 will get usual care.