Understanding your heart and lungs,
in plain language.
How these guides are written and reviewed →
Three simple ways in.
Pick your starting point
Choose one of the seven areas below — an A–Z of conditions, managing day to day, the physiotherapy we do, microbiology & medicines, outcome measures & clinical skills, surgery & procedures, or the key references behind it all.
Read at your level
Every guide is plain-language for clients, with a clinician layer where it helps. Condition guides all follow the same structure — Overview, Diagnosis, Management, Physiotherapy, Living well, Evidence.
Bring it to your team
Read anything useful and bring it to your next appointment — a shared starting point for the conversation.
These guides are for education and support — they do not replace advice from your own care team. Updated August 2026 — new guides are added regularly.
A–Z of Conditions
Plain-language guides to common heart and lung conditions, each following the same clear structure so you always know where to look.
More than 85 heart & lung conditions, A to Z
Patients & clinicians Open this area →Managing Your Condition
Your day-to-day roadmap — routines, home therapies and knowing exactly when and how to act on a flare-up.
Daily routine · flare-ups · oxygen · inhaler technique
For patients Open this area →Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy
How we assess, and the airway-clearance, breathing and rehab techniques we teach — plus the tests we use to track progress.
Symptoms · assessment · airway clearance · breathing · rehab · tests
Patients & clinicians Open this area →Microbiology & Medications
A plain-language guide to the main medicines used in heart and lung disease, and the microbes behind chest infections.
Medicines · microbiology · infection
Patients & clinicians Open this area →Outcome Measures & Clinical Skills
The investigations and outcome measures used in cardiorespiratory practice, and the advanced techniques that go with them.
Blood gases · lung function · exercise testing · hyperinflation
For clinicians Open this area →Surgery & Procedures
Cardiothoracic surgery and the procedures around it — what each operation changes anatomically, what goes wrong afterwards, and what that means at the bedside.
Peri-operative care · thoracic & pleural · cardiac · airway · transplantation
For clinicians Open this area →These resources are for general education and are not a substitute for individualised assessment by a qualified clinician. If your symptoms change suddenly or severely, seek urgent medical care.