BURKE

BURKE REHABILITATION HOSPITAL

www.burke.org

Directed By:
Richard S. Novitch, M.D.
Director of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation

Emphysema, usually called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, remains a terrible scourge. Most everyone knows someone whose life has been limited and shortened by COPD, a disease that causes frightening and oppressive shortness of breath. With the encouragement and support of Will Rogers Institute, Burke Rehabilitation Hospital has been a leader in pulmonary rehabilitation.

Pulmonary rehabilitation is one of the mainstays of treatment of COPD. Rehabilitation doesn’t improve the condition of damaged lungs, but it substantially improves an individual’s ability to perform the ordinary daily activities that make life worth living. Pulmonary rehabilitation is complex. Complicating features are variable shortness of breath, comorbid medical illness, differing degrees of physical conditioning and the presence of depression.

Successful data collection and analysis enables doctors to identify the essential components of rehabilitation and optimally, to both improve the quality of care and decrease the time required for patients to stay in the rehabilitation facility.