Digitally-enabled rehabilitation for people with Long Covid (Living With Covid Recovery)

It’s thought that up to 10% of people who have had COVID-19 go on to develop Long-Covid, symptoms of which can include feeling breathless, anxiety, aches and pains, loss of appetite, tiredness and fatigue.

This project aims to develop, deploy and evaluate a programme to provide effective and cost-effective rehabilitation to patients affected by Long-Covid, within the available NHS resources. 

There are three components to the Living With Covid Recovery programme: a clinical pathway (which varies by Trust); a digital dashboard which enables rehabilitation clinicians to review and advise large numbers of patients swiftly and effectively; and a patient-facing app which delivers physical and mental health treatment programmes to the patient, collects symptom data through validated Patient Reported Outcome Measures and allows two-way messaging between the treating clinician and the patient.

The Living With Covid Recovery programme has been developed in collaboration with the NIHR Applied Research Collaborations for Wessex (NIHR ARC Wessex) in partnership with University College London (leading), University of Southampton, NHS Trusts in London and a company called Living With.

This project led to the development of The Living With Covid Recovery programme, a digital treatment programme delivered to patients in the community, supported hospital and community based services. It includes tailored advice, treatment plans and suggested exercises. The app enables clinics to increase the number of patients getting high-quality treatment, simultaneously and remotely, across all aspects of the condition. Following a successful pilot at Bart’s hospital in London, the programme was scaled across England and Wales and was implemented into over 30 Long Covid clinics supporting over 8,000 patients. The programme has been endorsed by NHSE, is actively part of NHSE’s Long Covid commissioning guidelines, a 2022 AHSN Innovate Awards winner, and shortlisted for the 2021 RCP’s Excellence in Patient Care Award.

As of Aug 2021, the Living With Covid Recovery programme is currently helping to support over 2,500 patients across 30 clinics in 20 NHS trusts, with plans to roll out to more Trusts to meet the growing need for support.

Patients and health and care professionals have been involved and consulted throughout the development of the programme, to ensure that it provides the support they need.

On using the app, a Long-Covid patient said:"I started using the Living With Covid Recovery App in August and have found it very helpful in tracking my progress and building up my activity levels. 

One of the most important aspects for me is the connection to support and advice from my own physiotherapist and doctors through the App, which has helped reassure me and made me feel that I'm not alone."

Helen Craig from UCLPartners (our Academic Health Science Partnership and Living With partner) has written a blog on how patient and public involvement and engagement sat at the heart of the programme.

Two physiotherapists from Central and North West London NHS Trust, who have been involved in piloting the Living With Covid Recovery app within community settings, share their positive experiences of the programme.

University College London

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

Barts Health NHS Trust

Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust

Southampton University

University of Exeter

Living With Ltd

Tower Hamlets CCG

Intensive Care Society 

Imperial AHSN