Virtual Pulmonary Rehabilitation: Lessons from the Pandemic

Overview

Learners will discover how pulmonary rehabilitation programs across Canada adapted to virtual and hybrid care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This course will highlight key lessons learned, including implementation successes and challenges, patient and provider experiences, and considerations for remote functional assessment. Learners will explore how these insights can support the future planning and delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation services.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Describe how PR programs across Canada adapted service delivery through virtual and hybrid models during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. Identify key facilitators and barriers to implementing virtual PR from the perspectives of patients and healthcare providers.
3. Discuss the acceptability and practical considerations of remote functional assessment within PR programs.
4. Apply lessons learned from virtual PR implementation to future program planning and delivery.

Speaker Biography

Lee Verweel completed his PhD in Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University, where his research focused on the implementation of virtual pulmonary rehabilitation in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. His work examined how patients, healthcare providers, and PR programs across Canada adapted to virtual care, the factors that influenced the adoption of virtual PR, and the potential of remote functional assessment. Lee currently serves as the Manager of Research Quality & Integration at the University Health Network (UHN), where he supports enterprise clinical research quality and innovation initiatives.