Resources for professionals about pulmonary rehabilitation

"Scoping review WHO conducted a scoping review on rehabilitation and PHC using the PubMed database. The search string rehabilitation [Title/Abstract] AND “primary health care” OR “primary care” [Title/Abstract] was used, including studies published in English between 2008 and 2018. Of the 530 abstracts that were examined, 246 were excluded. A further 78 were excluded following full text review, resulting in 212 included in the final analysis. Key findings Most of the literature reviewed (89%) came from high-income settings. Thematically, 64% of analysed studies mentioned referral to rehabilitation by the primary care workforce, while others referenced rehabilitation carried out in a primary care setting (25%), or explored the idea of rehabilitation in the primary care context (11%). One key issue repeatedly mentioned in the literature was under-referral to rehabilitation by the primary care workforce. For example, several studies focused on the under-utilization of pulmonary rehabilitation for COPD, despite overwhelming evidence of its benefits for all symptomatic COPD patients (31, 38– 41). A systematic review of surveys and audits found that only 3–16% of eligible COPD patients were referred to pulmonary rehabilitation (42). Reasons for underreferral include lack of knowledge about pulmonary rehabilitation, particularly among GPs, and insufficient resources (3, 43)"

See paper: Access to rehabilitation in primary health care: an ongoing challenge. Working Draft.  2018.  Technical Series on Primary Health Care