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People with PH are being invited to take part in an important trial testing the effectiveness of supervised home exercise programmes.

The Supervised Pulmonary Hypertension Exercise Rehabilitation (SPHERe) trial is being led by clinical exercise rehabilitation experts and researchers from the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, and the University of Warwick Clinical Trials Unit.

It initially set out to launch at the start of 2020, and after delays due to the pandemic, it’s now begun recruitment once again.

Funded by a £1.3m grant from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the trial aims to find out if exercise rehabilitation can be done at home with online (remote) supervision from trained exercise specialists.

Researchers are looking for 352 people with pulmonary hypertension from anywhere in the UK. Fitness levels are unimportant, but to take part you must have access to the internet and be able to follow exercise sessions online.

Occasional in-person visits to an assessment centre will be required, with locations to be confirmed.

Until now, no research has looked at whether exercise can be prescribed outside of the hospital setting, for people living with pulmonary hypertension in the community.

The findings of this study will help researchers understand how effective this type of supervised exercise is, so that similar programmes can be used by the NHS to help more people with PH.

More information about the trial can be found at www.warwick.ac.uk/sphere. You can contact the researchers directly with any questions, or put yourself forward for the study, be emailing SPHERe@warwick.ac.uk or calling 02476234570.