Barriers and Challenges of Implementing Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Malaysia: Stakeholders’ Perspectives

Chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) are a growing problem in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where mortality and morbidity rates are rising. Established health benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) for patients with CRD includes improvement in functional exercise capacity, symptom scores, and quality of life along with reduced hospital stays and costs warranting increased efforts to promote implementation. Stakeholder engagement in research has been recognised as an important component in implementing research findings to achieve better patient care, health innovation and policy reform. With limited stakeholder engagement activities being carried out in Malaysia, this stakeholder event aimed to engage health care professionals' views on the barriers to implementation of PR in Malaysian healthcare settings. The barriers and challenges to PR implementation identified included poor knowledge of PR amongst providers, lack of financial and human resources, absence of clear guidelines and referral pathways as well as patient barriers to participating in PR. These key stakeholder perspectives have informed us about the implementation research gaps in Malaysia, allowing us to explore possible solutions in future research planning and execution of PR implementation for patients with CRDs