PhD degree for Aernout Snoek

Aernout Snoek successfully defended his thesis entitled "Cardiac Rehabilitation - How much pain for the optimal gain?".

Description
One of the important and effective treatments for cardiovascular diseases is insufficiently applied in the Netherlands. Although the motion therapy of cardiac rehabilitation can reduce both mortality and the number of hospitalizations, only a part of the patients who are entitled to it actually start rehabilitation. Travel time to the rehabilitation center and transport problems are two possible obstacles to start. By observing and coaching movement in the home situation (tele-rehabilitation) this problem is solved and health and conditional gains can be achieved in an effective way. More than a quarter of the people older than 65 years who initially decided not to participate in regular cardiac rehabilitation opted for telerevalidation. It turned out that this alternative was safe and that after a year patients were fitter, more eventful and showed more improvement in cardiovascular risk factors than the control group. Six months of telerevalidation also proved effective in maintaining the improvement in condition.

Biography
Aernout Snoek (1979) completed his training as a sports doctor in 2012 in Isala, Zwolle. Since then he has been working at both the department of sports medicine and the department of cardiac rehabilitation (Harthuis) of Isala. Above mentioned research he carried out from the Harthuis of Isala with guidance from the Radboud Institute for Health Sciences of the Radboudumc.