Telemedizin und Training bei COPD

Abstract

The present review is focused on telemonitoring of domiciliary activity in patients with COPD. Many studies have shown that daily physical exercise improves survival and quality of life in COPD. Frequency and duration of home training, however, crucially depends on how patients are otivated. Telemonitoring of compliance may help to solve this problem. The daily physical activity at home, during leisure and sporting activities can be described and quantified by using questionnaires. Due to a lack of accuracy they cannot be recommended, in particular, for the assessment of therapeutic interventions. Better information is available using motion sensors and accelerometers to measure body movements, e. g., pedometers, the results of which can be transmitted via a mobile phone. However, these methods are of limited use for the routine collection of training data. Use of a bicycle ergometer for training at home can better be quantified. An important motivation for regular physical exercise results if feedback is provided via telephone by the attending physician, nurse, or the instructor. Telephone consultations with the nurse monitoring the patient should be based on the objective data of the training performance. Thus, unnecessary calls are avoided. A change in exercise performance can be detected without any significant time delay and analyzed by the telephone support. Telemetric monitoring of home training can contribute to improve the compliance behaviour of COPD patients in terms of physical activity © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart.