Enhancing Recovery After Heart Transplant A Patient-Participation Approach to Co-Designing a New Pre-Habilitation Program

Speaker:
Javier Lopez, MD - Associate Professor and Medical Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of California Davis
Themis Yiaslas, PsyD - Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, UC Davis School of Medicine

Description:
Our quality improvement project will create a pre-habilitation program for patients with advanced heart failure being considered for transplant; the new program will improve the pre-operative functional capacity of patients that are being evaluated for a heart transplant and their post-surgical recovery. The pre-habilitation program will be co-designed with patients, caregivers, and a multidisciplinary team of health-care providers. Our broader goal is to innovate on how heart transplant programs develop patient-informed models of care and to improve post-surgical outcomes that could support their ability to obtain and maintain accreditation.

• Review the potential benefits of pre-habilitation for heart transplant patients
• Understand the process of co-designing a pre-habilitation program for people on a heart transplant waiting list.