Ronan Whitlow’s programme contains nothing that would make a documentary. It also has more evidence behind it than most of what would.
Cardiac rehabilitation is meant to be twelve weeks of supervised, graded exercise. For patients two hours from a centre, that has historically meant no rehabilitation at all.
The shared-care clinic puts a specialist on a scheduled video link into the local practice, with the practice nurse physically in the room and the monitoring data already on screen.
The unglamorous half of cardiology is the half that works. That’s an awkward thing to fundraise on.
Illustrative composite
Risk factor work is unglamorous and continues indefinitely. It is also, by a wide margin, the part of the pathway with the most evidence behind it.
“I feel exactly the same as I did two years ago,” he says. “That’s apparently the result.”
