NIHR RECHARGE

Working with partners in Kyrgyzstan, India, Sri Lanka and Uganda, the NIHR Global RECHARGE project seeks to restore the health of people living with chronic respiratory diseases through the development of effective pulmonary rehabilitation programmes.

The first phase of the project has been exploring the initial knowledge, attitudes and perspectives of patients and healthcare professionals through surveys. The second phase has been determining how a western pulmonary rehabilitation service should be adapted to local cultures and specific respiratory conditions, such as post-tuberculosis lung disease, through interviews with prospective referrers and focus groups with patients. 

The final research phase will be to conduct feasibility or fully-powered randomised controlled trials comparing locally-adapted pulmonary rehabilitation with usual care. Throughout these activities, partners will enhance their research capacity through training and hands-on experience. As part of the development of pulmonary rehabilitation in low- and middle-income countries, Global RECHARGE has created a standard set of measures to allow international benchmarking for current and future partners.

With the support of the IPCRG and British Thoracic Society, the project is helping partners to set up and deliver high quality pulmonary rehabilitation services locally, nationally and throughout the regions. Ultimately, Global RECHARGE aims to leave a legacy of research capacity and high quality pulmonary rehabilitation services in low- and middle-income countries.

Teach the Teacher programme

Find out about our Tier 1 Master Teacher programme in our news item here
 

Online Learning Package

RECHARGE Online Learning Package for Pulmonary Rehabilitation research https://360.articulate.com/review/content/c89fd7ca-908e-4d09-a004-99f8ab0c9a37/review

See University of Leicester website: https://www.leicesterbrc.nihr.ac.uk/themes/respiratory/research/global-recharge/
 

Publications included here (updated December 2023).