Research Priorities in Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) plays a crucial role in improving outcomes for individuals with chronic respiratory diseases. The most outstanding challenge in PR is the low referral, uptake, and adherence that is dramatically low in the post-hospitalization period in rural, minority, and low-income populations. Research efforts to increase the portfolio of PR through the testing and implementation of new and effective options for home-based and community-based programs are potential research targets. Other potential foci of research efforts are the pursuit of behavior-change techniques to achieve a lifestyle change during PR and the referral process to increase uptake and adherence rates. Creating new rehabilitation options for chronic lung disease that can reach more people may require expanding the definition of PR for chronic lung disease to one more flexible and perhaps concordant with the World Health Organization's definition of rehabilitation as "a set of interventions designed to optimize functioning and reduce disability in individuals with health conditions in interaction with their environment." While efforts to augment access to conventional PR are warranted, it is time to devote research efforts to reach many more individuals with chronic lung disease, particularly minorities, rural, and low-income individuals that currently have no access to any rehabilitation, a social injustice that requires action. This manuscript outlines suggested future directions in rehabilitation research with the pursuit of evidence to support feasible and effective programs that may increase the rehabilitation portfolio to accommodate most individuals with chronic lung disease.