How the myCOPD app compliments Pulmonary Rehabilitation

There are multiple ways myCOPD can complement traditional rehabilitation or serve as an alternative for those patients that may find face-to-face sessions challenging to attend. The data entered by the patient is available to clinicians through the secure clinician portal to report on regardless of the rehabilitation option.

Traditional Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Patients attend a traditional class-based programme and can use the myCOPD App to record their progress, view educational materials and receive motivational messages. All sessions are face-to-face.

Remote Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Patients complete their programme from home or a location that suits their lifestyle, needing only to attend clinic twice for their initial and end assessments. Using the secure clinician portal, clinicians can review progress and support their goal-setting through motivational phone calls.

Hybrid Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Combining face-to-face and remote delivery, the hybrid model retains the benefit of the traditional route whilst increasing flexibility and accessibility by allowing sessions to be completed remotely. And with the recent addition of the Activity Diary to myCOPD, it's even easier for clinical teams and patients to track offline and online activity in one place. Making myCOPD an excellent option for those patients that find it challenging to attend sessions in person twice a week.

How can myCOPD support a DEPR approach?

myCOPD has been developed by a multidisciplinary team of respiratory clinicians and people living with COPD. The myCOPD app is set apart from other digital interventions. It is the only multi-faceted online self-management app platform comprising education programmes, online pulmonary rehabilitation programme, inhaler technique videos, environmental alerts of weather and pollution and much more. As each licence is life long, myCOPD is ideally placed to support the patient in their ongoing maintenance at the end of their rehabilitation programme.

myCOPD has been designed from the ground up to improve patient access to digital pulmonary rehabilitation, improve medication adherence and increase health service capacity.

The comprehensive 6-week safety gated and graduated home rehabilitation programme has been shown to deliver parity of care with face-to-face delivery. And when used as part of a digitally enhanced service delivery model can result in an increased service capacity and improved completion rates whilst providing service resilience.

myCOPD has achieved NICE and GOLD Endorsement. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care. The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) works with health care professionals and public health officials around the world to improve the prevention and treatment of COPD. To receive an endorsement from both NICE and GOLD means myCOPD has been rigorously tested against very specific criteria and meets the high standards required to satisfy these respected institutions.

Digitally Enhanced Pulmonary Rehabilitation Evaluation Study

Results published on bmj.com proved that a 6-week programme of digitally enhanced pulmonary rehabilitation is non-inferior to a traditional PR class delivered via face-to-face sessions.

The study was a two-arm parallel single-blind, randomised controlled trial. The online arm used the myCOPD pulmonary rehabilitation programme to perform pulmonary rehabilitation in their own homes and the face-to-face arm received conventional face-to-face rehabilitation in a local facility.

90 patients referred for pulmonary rehabilitation, with a confirmed diagnosis of COPD and a modified Medical Research Council (MRC) score of 2 or greater were enrolled into the study. Patients were randomised, in a 2:1 ratio to receive online pulmonary rehabilitation using myCOPD and 26 received conventional face-to-face pulmonary rehabilitation. The main outcomes measured were 6-minute walk distance test and the COPD assessment test (CAT) score at completion of the programme.

The adjusted mean difference for the 6 min walk test (6MWT) between groups for the intention-to-treat (ITT) population was 23.8 m with the lower 95%CI well above the non-inferiority threshold of −40.5 m at −4.5 m with an upper 95%CI of +52.2 m. This result was consistent in the per-protocol (PP) population with a mean adjusted difference of 15 m (−13.7 to 43.8). The CAT score difference in the ITT was −1.0 in favour of the online intervention with the upper 95%CI well below the non-inferiority threshold of 1.8 at 0.86 and the lower 95%CI of −2.9. The PP analysis was consistent with the ITT.

Digitally Enhanced Pulmonary Rehabilitation Pathway

Pulmonary rehab delivered via the myCOPD app can be a blended or completely home-based experience. There are benefits to both approaches and we encourage you to discuss all options with your patients.

Here is our recommended pathway: