Precision Cardio-Respiratory Physiotherapy: The Paradigm for Tailored Rehabilitation

In recent years, respiratory physiotherapy has undoubtedly acquired increasing visibility at a national level: events such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the more recent illness of Pope Francis have raised awareness of the importance of targeted physiotherapy intervention even in the context of respiratory pathologies, putting the spotlight on the figure of the respiratory physiotherapist.

Cardiorespiratory physiotherapy represents or should represent, as there is not yet institutional recognition, one of the specialist branches of physiotherapy.

The respiratory physiotherapist intervenes in all phases of the process of taking charge of the person with cardiorespiratory pathology, prevention, evaluation, treatment, rehabilitation and palliation; in children as in adults and in all care settings, both in the acute phases of pathology and in the management of chronicity.

As in all areas of medicine, even in the field of physiotherapy, in all its specializations, we are working towards an ever greater personalization of therapy. In its development, medicine has had to rely on the standardization of scientifically validated interventions capable of responding to “community” needs, at the same time, however, there is an ever-increasing awareness that each individual is a universe in itself, with a unique genetic code, a peculiar metabolism, an unrepeatable clinical history and an individual response to therapies. Precision medicine is born precisely from the encounter between the most recent scientific evidence and individual peculiarities.

This approach now extends to rehabilitation, giving rise to Precision Cardio-Respiratory Physiotherapy. The goal is clear: starting from the specific characteristics of the person to build a “tailor-made” therapeutic path. Increased knowledge, expertise and the advancement of new technologies are providing professionals with tools for increasingly accurate assessment and therapy.