Dear all,
The 21st – 22nd of March I was invited to be speaker for the Heart Failure Association Training Workshop on Rehabilitation and Long-Term Management of Heart Failure Patients in Pisa Italy, a course of the European Society of Cardiology. This was such an honour, especially because I attended this course myself as a PhD student four years ago.
The first day of the workshop we learned a lot about the guidelines for rehabilitation and prevention and there were presentations on Acute setting/post-acute setting – first steps in initializing cardiac rehabilitation. Additionally, there were two live sessions from the cardiac clinic in the hospital of Pisa (Fondazione Toscana Gabriele Monasterio per la Ricerca Medica e di Sanità Pubblica). One live demonstration on early mobilization and physical reconditioning in acute setting and the second on cardiopulmonary exercise testing.
In the evening we visit the Acient Camposanto in Piazza dei Miracoli and had dinner with all the participants and speakers in the course. A perfect ending of an excellent first day.
The second day the presentations were on phase two in rehabilitation, emerging scenarios in heart failure: case presentations and multidisciplinary approach in rehabilitation. I gave a case presentation on tele-rehabilitation and Wii gaming and a presentation on how to deal with vocational, sex and other crucial items in rehabilitation. On sexual counseling in rehabilitation I wrote a blog for the early career blogging of the American Heart Association. There is a very nice online web-seminar of sexual counseling in cardiac patients on the website of the European Society of Cardiology, if you would like to learn more about this subject.
Leonie Klompstra