Program Evaluation

Evaluation of the effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation programs can be based on:

1. Patient outcomes (i.e. what were the effects on the patient’s exercise capacity and quality of life?).
2. Patient feedback (i.e. what did the patient think of the program?).

Evaluating the effectiveness of a pulmonary rehabilitation program depends on the assessment of patients before and after the program. Ideally, long-term assessments (e.g. 12 months after program completion) would also be conducted to help determine the long-term effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation programs and to provide long-term follow-up data.  The availability of resources may limit centres from conducting long-term assessments.

The extent of evaluation will depend on the availability of local resources.  The evaluation should reflect the content of each centre’s pulmonary rehabilitation program.