Programma
Better in, better out
Prehabilitation is the optimization of patient-related modifiable risk factors prior to surgery or treatment. This increases the patient's resilience, improving the surgery or treatment outcome and reducing complications.
Lifestyle Program
The principle of helping patients go into their surgery fitter is called "prehabilitation. The goal of prehabilitation is to make patients who need surgery stronger and healthier prior to surgery so that they recover better and have a more positive outcomes after surgery.
Much national and international research has been done on prehabilitation in recent years. Despite promising results in patients with colon cancer, for example, prehabilitation is not yet part of standard care. This is mainly due to how new innovations are integrated into primary care. That path is determined by the extent and quality of the scientific record; a precise, time-consuming process with an average duration of 17 years. That is too long for a promising innovation such as prehabilitation, where hardly any adverse effects can be imagined, according to a significant number of stakeholders.
Fit4Surgery is a program for people undergoing (major) surgery or treatment. Among other things, the goal is to improve fitness so that the patient is more resistant to the surgery. 'Better in, better out'.
Surgery is like running a marathon; the better you train, the better you'll get through the operation. Fit4Surgery is here to help!
The program consists of physical workouts, improving nutrition, mental coaching, treating specific diseases/vulnerabilities and quitting smoking and drinking alcohol. In some cases, diagnosis and surgery happen in quick succession, but you would be surprised how much fitness can improve in a short period of time.
Foundation
A number of health care providers feel a responsibility to improve Dutch health. They believe that improving health is an integral part of disease treatment. For this reason, they established the Fit4Surgery foundation in 2015. The goal of the foundation is to make prehabilitation accessible to everyone as soon as possible, because everyone deserves the best possible outcomes for their treatment.
Patients who prehabilitate prior to major surgery reduce the risk of complications by as much as 50% and increase the likelihood of a quick and good recovery. Prehabilitation not only improves hospital outcomes, it lowers healthcare costs and improves patients' long-term health.
