Among coronary patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation, mortality rates are generally 21% to 34% lower than among nonusers, and a significant dose-response relationship exists between the number of cardiac-rehabilitation sessions attended and cardiovascular outcomes. Although it has been suggested that contemporary thrombolytic and emergent revascularization procedures, which markedly diminish early post-infarction mortality, as well as new cardioprotective drug therapies, may serve to attenuate the impact of adjunctive exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation, a recent meta-analyses concluded that the mortality benefits of cardiac rehabilitation persist in modern cardiology. Despite the survival advantage and related beneficial outcomes, cardiac rehabilitation services remain vastly underutilized among Medicare beneficiaries. Cardiac Rehabilitation in Modern Cardiology: The Underutilization Paradox? reviews those issues, and provides clinical staff with practical strategies to increase utilization.
