Telemedicine-driven rehabilitation in interstitial lung diseases: a narrative review

INTRODUCTION: Telemedicine is defined as the delivery of healthcare from a distance using electronic information and communication technology. Patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) were among the early recipients of such remote healthcare. AREAS COVERED: We reviewed this contemporary field of telemedicine-driven therapeutic interventions in ILD patients. PubMed was used for literature search, focusing on research articles, international guidelines, and so on. EXPERT OPINION: The initial stage of telemedicine for ILD patients was mainly focused on subjects already diagnosed and was therefore adopted for monitoring purposes. As technology developed, pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) also became amenable to remote delivery to evaluate therapeutic efficacy of home-based interventions. Physicians are enabling ILD patients to undergo therapeutic PR at home, with the support of telemedicine. This approach is being tested across various ILD diseases, showing promising results. Telemedicine presents an opportunity to reduce the socioeconomic burden on both patients and caregivers during therapeutic rehabilitation of ILD patients. This potential, however, is contingent upon successfully addressing challenges like legal issues and ensuring high user adoption.