Establishment of cardiac rehabilitation program in Yazd-Iran: An experience of a developing country

Background: Cardiovascular diseases are the most common causes of mortality in the world including Iran and are one of the main causes of disability. Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) is a multidisciplinary program that helps CVD patients recover faster after a heart attack and avoid any subsequent incident. This report determined the current state of CR in Yazd, Iran. Characteristics of the program: Hospital-based Afshar CR program in Yazd, Iran, is the only CR facility in Yazd province, which is located in the centre of Iran. Currently, the Afshar CR program has four phases including inpatient, sub-acute, outpatient and maintenance. The CR team includes cardiologists and heart surgeons as physicians, and physical medicine rehabilitation specialist, outpatient and inpatient resident medical officers, psychiatrists, nutritionists, psychologists, physiotherapists and social workers. Discussion: Given the facilities and training programs mentioned above, the rate of patient referral to the center by the inpatient CR team during the short life of CR in this center was 60%, the patient participation rate was 6.9% and the enrollment rate was 55%. In addition, over the past three years, 57% of registered patients completed the program. Conclusion: The Afshar CR is trying to get closer to the world standard setting. But it seems that it is necessary to develop the standard of CR in Iran based on the culture and socio-economic status of Iranian community. Keywords: Cardiac rehabilitation, Low-middle income countries, Referral rate, Attendance rate, Enrollment rate, Completion rate