
What's New
Upcoming Journal Club
Tue, Sept. 9, 4 p.m. ET, Telerehabilitation Compared with Center-based Pulmonary Rehabilitation for People with Chronic Respiratory Disease: Economic Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial
- Literature Review: May 2025/June 2025
- Literature Review: March 2025/April 2025
- PR Assembly Sessions at ATS 2025
- Similar Weaning Success Rate with High-intensity and Sham Inspiratory Muscle Training: A Randomized Controlled Trial (IMweanT)
- Quarterly Bite: Can Assessment of Multi-Tasking Inform the Cognitive-Motor Function in People Living with COPD?
Welcome Message

Assembly Chair
Marilyn L. Moy, MD, MSc
Welcome to the website of the Assembly on Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR)!
The key missions of our Assembly are to:
- Educate health care providers and patients with chronic lung disease about the essential components of PR and their health benefits.
- Foster the continued development of the science of PR.
- Enhance the implementation and delivery of PR worldwide.
- Evaluate emerging PR modalities.
As defined by the 2013 ATS/ERS Statement on Pulmonary Rehabilitation, PR is “a comprehensive intervention based on a thorough patient assessment followed by patient tailored therapies that include, but are not limited to, exercise training, education, and behavior change, designed to improve the physical and psychological condition of people with chronic respiratory disease and to promote the long-term adherence to health-enhancing behaviors.” Pulmonary rehabilitation reduces patients’ symptoms and improves their exercise tolerance and health-related quality of life.
Anchored in aerobic exercise training, PR is an evidence-based treatment based on well-designed clinical trials, with valid, reproducible and interpretable outcomes. PR is recommended by professional societies around the world as an essential component in the clinical management of people with COPD. Sound scientific data also support its effectiveness in other respiratory disorders including pulmonary fibrosis and other interstitial lung diseases, pulmonary hypertension, cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis, restrictive chest wall disease, asthma, lung cancer, post COVID-19, and preparation for or recovery from thoracic surgery (e.g. lung resection, lung volume reduction surgery, and lung transplantation). The magnitude of benefits of PR in COPD for key patient-centered outcomes has been found to be superior to those of pharmacologic therapies.
This is an exciting time for the field of PR. PR is underutilized and efforts to increase availability and patient participation are critically needed. Remotely delivered PR models have started to be evaluated in the U.S. and globally. Commercial offerings, untethered to center-based programs, have appeared. While this movement has the potential to increase patient access, there is much work to be done to ensure the highest fidelity to the essential components of center-based PR so that patients, providers, and payers can be assured that expected outcomes are achieved.
Our PR Assembly has a multidisciplinary, international membership with complementary clinical, educational, and research interests. We enthusiastically welcome new members with either primary or secondary ATS Assembly affiliation and are excited about collaborating with other ATS Assemblies. We especially encourage involvement of health care professionals from all disciplines and areas of the world where patients’ access to PR is currently limited or lacking. We also encourage and welcome health care professional trainees who treat patients with chronic respiratory conditions.
As one of the smaller ATS Assemblies, we believe that we can provide a home, mentorship, networking, and place where your voice can be heard. If you are passionate or curious about a truly impactful patient-centered, nonpharmacologic intervention based on exercise and positive behavior change, please join us! We need your skills in scientific inquiry and advocacy to make PR accessible to all patients with chronic respiratory disease.