Dr. Sheral Kachpile (respiratory physiotherapist, shares her telerehab experience in pulmonary fibrosis)

Sheral Kachpile, a cardiovascular and respiratory physical therapist with a private pulmonary and cardiac rehab center practice seeing patients, including those with IPF, in Mumbai, on the west coast of India, agreed that the convenience of telehealth is helpful. Many of these patients need oxygen and it often is impractical or impossible to travel with heavy tanks. Plus, in her area, similar to rural areas in the U.S., these kinds of centers are few and far between.

One of her patients, a 78-year-old woman with pulmonary fibrosis (PF) who lives in Northern India, started telehealth last May after an in-person assessment and consultation. Kachpile sees the patient online twice per week for 45 minutes and has charted improvement in functional capacity and lung capacity in the virtual assessments done every six weeks. Kachpile had to teach the patient how to monitor her own vitals and the patient’s grandchild had to help set up the video call.