Cardiac Rehabilitation for Breast Cancer Survivors

In-person CR consists of weekly group-based supervised exercise training at Women's College Hospital, supplemented with home-based exercise training, with the goal of reaching Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines of 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity exercise per week. Exercise prescriptions are individualized at baseline by the cardiac rehabilitation team. Both study arms get have the opportunity to attend weekly synchronous virtual group video education sessions for the duration of the 12-week cardiac rehab program with the focus on self-management education and support.

Virtual CR consists of once-weekly telephone or video conferencing-based follow-ups (according to participant preference and access to internet/smart device) by one of the cardiac rehab providers. Similar to the in-person program, the virtual program also encourages participants to set goals to achieve 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity exercise. The exercise prescription is individualized to each participant's ability and can vary in number of sessions per week and duration of each exercise session, as per the cardiac rehab provider's discretion. Unlike the in-person program, all these sessions are completed at home in an unsupervised manner. Both study arms get have the opportunity to attend weekly synchronous virtual group video education sessions for the duration of the 12-week cardiac rehab program with the focus on self-management education and support.