The development of cardiological rehabilitation in central Europe: Past, present and future

Cardiological rehabilitation, the comprehensive efficient treatment of chronic cardiac patients, is presented with regard to its difficult theoretical and practical development from the viewpoint of a senior specialist in this field practising in Central Europe. The accompanying WHO lifestyle concept is now considered to be scientifically well-founded, but has not yet been practically implemented on a large scale nor incorporated in the teaching schedule. A requirement for the future is a special medical philosophy for chronic heart patients, i.e., further development of the theoretical basis of rehabilitation, practical application of the scientific recommendations on the importance of life-style alterations, a greatly improved network of all doctors treating chronic heart patients, updating of the training of general medical specialists as well as cardiologists in Public Health, and intensified objective assessment of research on the cardiological rehabilitation of in- and outpatients.