Rehabilitation and prevention

The need for rehabilitation worldwide is predicted to increase due to an ageing population and a rise in the number of people living with complex co-morbidities.

Exercise is vital to help people maintain functional mobility, independence and aid recovery from a range of diseases.

Network members are developing new approaches and interventions across the health and social care system to help people prepare for surgery and recover faster, restore motor function after damage to the nervous system, optimize recovery from disease and injury, and reduce health inequalities.

Examples of focus areas include:

• Functional mobility 
• Therapeutic exercise interventions 
• Prehabilitation 
• Secondary disease prevention 
• Neurorehabilitation 

Members conducting rehabilitation and prevention research:

• Professor Susan Deuchars (School of Biomedical Sciences) - Spinal cord; Neurogenesis; Autonomic neuroscience; Neuromodulation; Electrophysiology; Imaging; Microneurography
• Dr Jennifer Airlie (Bradford Institute for Health Research) - Sedentary Behaviour, Stroke Rehabilitation, Physical Activity in Care Homes, Improving and Psychological Health and Social Well-being, Ageing
• Anna Anderson (Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine) - Digital tools for people with musculoskeletal conditions, Improving accessibility and inclusion in health research, Mixed methods research and evidence synthesis
• Dr Sarah Astill (School of Biomedical Sciences) - Motor Learning; Upper Limb Rehabilitation; Spinal Cord Injury; Children with Developmental Disorders; Plasticity; Physical Activity
• Dr Rebecca Beeken (School of Medicine) - Behavioural science; Complex interventions; Cancer prevention and control; Health behaviours; Physical activity; Eating behaviours; Obesity; Weight management
• Professor Karen Birch (School of Biomedical Sciences) - Physical activity assessment; Exercise science; Exercise interventions; Flow-mediated dilatation; Vascular physiology; Exercise testing; Exercise and female reproductive health; Exercise and menopause
• Dr Laura Britten (School of Biomedical Sciences) - Physical Activity; Interventions; Dance; Wellbeing; Behaviour Change; Spinal Cord Injury; Upper Limb; Rehabilitation
• Dr Shaunna Burke (School of Biomedical Sciences) - Physical activity; Psychosocial oncology; Quality of life; Qualitative research
• Michelle Collinson (School of Medicine) - Statistics; Clinical Trials; Cancer & Palliative Care; Phase III; Pilot & Feasibility studies; Cluster RCTs; Funding/Grant Applications.
• Professor Philip Conaghan (School of Medicine) - Osteoarthritis; Rheumatoid arthritis; Psoriatic arthritis; Arthritis clinical trials; Arthritis therapeutics; Outcome measurement; Imaging
• Professor Anne Forster (School of Medicine) - Stroke; Stroke Rehabilitation; Ageing; Rehabilitation
• Dr Simon Howell (School of Medicine) - Cardiovascular complications of anaesthesia and surgery; Risk estimation in surgery and anaesthesia; Frailty in the surgical patient; Exercise and functional capacity in surgical patients.
• Dr Sarah Kingsbury (School of Medicine) - Osteoarthritis; Musculoskeletal disease; Orthopaedics; Clinical trials; Interventions; Care pathways; Pharmacoepidemiology; Health services
• Dr Sarah Mackie (School of Medicine) - Giant cell arteritis; Polymyalgia rheumatica
• Professor Gretl McHugh (School of Healthcare) - Musculoskeletal conditions; Long-term conditions; Health services research; Health Visiting; Community Nursing.
• Dr Camilla Nykjaer (School of Biomedical Sciences) - Nutrition; Obesity; Technology to support weight loss; Maternal Dietary Patterns
• Professor Rory O’Connor (School of Medicine) - Rehabilitation Medicine; Restorative Rehabilitation Technologies; Vocational Rehabilitation; Outcome Measurement; Psychometrics; Rasch Analysis; Long-term Conditions; Global Rehabilitation
• Dr Maria Horne (School of Healthcare) - Health promotion; Behaviour change; Community & public health; Research; Mixed methodology; Qualitative research; Exercise & physical activity; Older adults; Ethnicity; Sexuality & intimacy.
• Dr Louise Hall (School of Medicine) - Health psychology; Wellbeing; Burnout; Medication adherence; Behaviour change; Physical activity
• Dr Nick Preston (School of Medicine) - Rehabilitation; Cerebral palsy; Developmental Coordination disorder; Movement disorders; Development of new outcome measures; Rasch model; Physiotherapy
• Professor Amanda Farrin (School of Medicine) - Clinical Trials; Statistics; Complex Interventions; Stroke; Older People; Mental health; Primary Care; Audit & Feedback; Cancer; Palliative Care 
• Dr Ronaldo Ichiyama (School of Biomedical Sciences) - Motor control; Locomotion; Motoneurone; Spinal cord injury; Neuroregeneration, Plasticity
• Dr Andrea Utley (School of Biomedical Sciences) - Motor control and Co-ordination disorders; Rehabilitation in manipulating movement
• Tom Wallace (Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust) - Vascular Surgery
• Dr Sarah Calaghan (School of Biomedical Sciences) - Cardiac physiology; Caveolae; compartmentalised signalling; Adrenergic signalling; Mechanotransduction; Models of cardiac disease; Skeletal myopathy, Statins, Muscle adaptation to exercise
• Dr Oliver Price (Faculty of Biological Sciences) - Airways disease; Exertional dyspnoea; Pulmonary function testing; Bronchial provocation; Cardiopulmonary exercise testing; Rehabilitation strategies
• Dr Adam Grice (School of Medicine) - Physical activity in primary care; Systematic literature reviews
• Dr Aiquin Liu (School of Biological Sciences) - Joint replacement; Regenerative medicine; Experimental simulation; Biomechanics of knee replacement; Rehabilitation assistive technology
• Professor Stuart Egginton (Sport and Exercise Sciences) - Physiology (cardiovascular, respiratory, skeletal muscle); Angiogenesis; Peripheral oxygen transport; Microcirculation; Exercise; Thermal acclimation
• Dr Samit Chakrabarty (School of Biomedical Sciences) - Sensory motor neurophysiology; Medical technology; Closed loop stimulation systems; Rehabilitation
• Ilaria Pina (School of Biomedical Sciences) - Physical Activity, Healthy Ageing, Movement Behaviours, Health Inequalities, Rehabilitation
• Professor Ed White (School of Biomedical Sciences) - Cardiac Physiology; Electrical and Mechanical activity in the heart; Heart Failure