{"doi":"10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061285","title":"Safety, feasibility and initial efficacy of an app-facilitated telerehabilitation (AFTER) programme for COVID-19 survivors: a pilot randomised study","abstract":"OBJECTIVES: Determine the safety, feasibility and initial efficacy of a multicomponent telerehabilitation programme for COVID-19 survivors. DESIGN: Pilot randomised feasibility study. SETTING: In-home telerehabilitation. PARTICIPANTS: 44 participants (21 female, mean age 52 years) discharged home following hospitalisation with COVID-19 (with and without intensive care unit (ICU) stay). INTERVENTIONS: Participants were block randomised 2:1 to receive 12 individual biobehaviourally informed, app-facilitated, multicomponent telerehabilitation sessions with a licenced physical therapist (n=29) or to a control group (n=15) consisting of education on exercise and COVID-19 recovery trajectory, physical activity and vitals monitoring, and weekly check-ins with study staff. Interventions were 100% remote and occurred over 12 weeks. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was feasibility, including safety and session adherence. Secondary outcomes included preliminary efficacy outcomes including tests of function and balance; patient-reported outcome measures; a cognitive assessment; and average daily step count. The 30 s chair stand test was the main secondary (efficacy) outcome. RESULTS: No adverse events (AEs) occurred during testing or in telerehabilitation sessions; 38% (11/29) of the intervention group compared with 60% (9/15) of the control group experienced an AE (p=0.21), most of which were minor, over the course of the 12-week study. 27 of 29 participants (93%; 95% CI 77% to 99%) receiving the intervention attended ≥75% of sessions. Both groups demonstrated clinically meaningful improvement in secondary outcomes with no statistically significant differences between groups. CONCLUSION: Fully remote telerehabilitation was safe, feasible, had high adherence for COVID-19 recovery, and may apply to other medically complex patients including those with barriers to access care. This pilot study was designed to evaluate feasibility; further efficacy evaluation is needed. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04663945.","journal":"BMJ Open","year":2022,"id":237113,"datarank":1.9689654218778048,"base_score":4.1588830833596715,"endowment":4.1588830833596715,"self_citation_contribution":0.6238324625039509,"citation_network_contribution":1.345132959373854,"self_endowment_contribution":0.6238324625039509,"citer_contribution":1.345132959373854,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":63,"citer_count":53,"citers_with_citation_signal":44,"citers_with_endowment":44,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9458,"is_data_producer":true,"deposit_databanks":{"ClinicalTrials.gov":["NCT04663945"]},"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":818159,"name":"Sarah E. Jolley","orcid":"0000-0002-4616-7792","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":395981,"name":"Mary Morrow","orcid":"0000-0002-2115-4864","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":859638,"name":"Meghan Connors","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":858799,"name":"Kristine Hare","orcid":"0009-0007-8638-6977","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":395984,"name":"Samantha MaWhinney","orcid":"0000-0002-9818-0059","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":527358,"name":"Amy Nordon‐Craft","orcid":"0000-0002-0765-1178","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":858800,"name":"Michelle R Rauzi","orcid":"0000-0002-8234-5015","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":794550,"name":"Sheryl Flynn","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":342385,"name":"Jennifer E. Stevens‐Lapsley","orcid":"0000-0002-8118-378X","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":242505,"name":"Kristine M. Erlandson","orcid":"0000-0003-0808-6729","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":495268,"name":"Jacob J. Capin","orcid":"0000-0001-9361-3700","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":50,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:22:08.925400Z","pmid":"35882451","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}