Publication of the Month, January 2026

Evaluating Digital Prehabilitation in Cardiac Rehabilitation

Dr Chelsea Batty and colleagues have recently published a paper on cardiac rehabilitation in the British Journal of Cardiac Nursing.

Cardiac rehabilitation helps people recover after heart conditions by supporting physical activity, healthy lifestyles, and long-term heart health. Exercise is a key part of this, with UK guidelines recommending patients complete regular cardiovascular exercise at a specific intensity and for a minimum duration to improve fitness and reduce future risk.

However, many UK cardiac rehabilitation services cannot offer the full recommended number of supervised exercise sessions due to staffing shortages, long waiting lists, and limited resources. This means patients may need to exercise independently, making it especially important that they understand how hard and how long they should be exercising.

This service evaluation explored whether digital prehabilitation, short, tailored videos watched before starting cardiac rehabilitation, could help patients:

• understand and remember exercise guidelines (intensity and duration), and
• feel more prepared and confident before joining exercise classes.

Patients watched a short video specific to their local venue and type of programme (gym-based or circuit-based). The videos explained what to expect, how sessions run, and how to judge exercise effort using the “Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE)” scale. Halfway through the programme, patients completed a short online survey.

What did the team find?

Most patients said the videos were useful and helped them feel more confident about exercising correctly and knowing what to expect. Many felt reassured and better prepared to take part in classes.

However, despite this confidence, most patients could not accurately recall the recommended exercise intensity or minimum exercise duration. This gap between feeling confident and remembering key exercise targets was especially clear in gym-based programmes, where exercise guidance is more complex.

What does this mean?

Digital prehabilitation appears helpful for improving confidence and familiarity, but on its own it may not be enough to support accurate recall of exercise guidelines. Future versions may need clearer visuals, simpler messages, or interactive reminders to better support memory and self-monitoring — especially for patients exercising independently.

This early evaluation highlights the potential value of digital tools, while also showing where they need refining to better support safe and effective cardiac rehabilitation.

Read the full paper.