Boston, NY Hospitals Collaborate on Telehealth Platform for COVID-19 Rehab

A telehealth program created at Harvard Medical School has shown value in helping COVID-19 patients rehabilitate at home.

The platform, developed through a partnership with Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Irving Medical Center, may also offer a blueprint for remote patient monitoring programs that target pulmonary, cognitive or mobility issues. It is reportedly one of the first programs to show success in using telehealth to help previously hospitalized patients recover at home.

In a study published in October in the scientific journal for the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the research team reported that physical therapy sessions conducted at home through connected health channels were “significantly better” than the standard of care, which often consists of unstructured exercise with little guidance.

“The patients who were in the groups that either didn't do any exercise, or just had a sheet of exercises that they were working off of on their own, didn't really improve in terms of their strength and endurance the same way that that the patients who did the virtual (physical therapy) program did,” Alfred Gellhorn, a specialist at Weill Cornell Medicine and the study’s principal investigator, said in a story published in the Harvard Crimson.

Just as important, Gellhorn said, the telehealth platform had a noticeable impact on patients’ mental health.

“What my hypothesis was going into the project was that we were (going to) see a lot of anxiety (and) depression, just because being in hospital with COVID is such a scary thing for patients,” he said. “In the inpatient setting, most patients did exhibit a lot of mental health problems, the way that they're isolated in the hospital. They don't have family visitors, typically.”

But at home, he said, only about 10 percent of the patient involved in the study reported symptoms of anxiety or depression.

The study could help create a standard pathway of care for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 who need rehabilitation, and give care providers a remote patient monitoring model that could augment home-based care or even eliminate the need to go to a skilled nursing or rehab facility. It could also serve as a template for future programs that aims to improve clinical outcomes for hospitalized patients after they’re discharged.

With the coronavirus pandemic showing no signs of letting up, health systems are not only looking for ways to improve care for those infected with the virus at home, but to create more opportunities for delivering healthcare outside the hospital or doctor’s office. This might include the development of RPM programs for post-discharge care and chronic care management.