Exercise and Rehabilitation
Current Projects
PERFORM (Personalised Exercise-Rehabilitation For people with Multiple long-term conditions (multimorbidity) trial
The PERFORM trial co-developed (with patients, caregivers, clinicians, and service commissioners) a bespoke programme of personalised exercise-based rehabilitation for people with multimorbidity and to evaluate its acceptability, clinical effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of its implementation into the NHS.
Publications:
Personalised Exercise-Rehabilitation FOR people with Multiple long-term conditions – PERFORM: protocol for a randomised feasibility trial, Sharon Anne Simpson, Rachael A Evans, Hannah Rosemary Gilbert , Amy Branson, Shaun Barber, Emma McIntosh, Zahira Ahmed, Sarah Gerard Dean , Patrick Joseph Doherty , Nikki Gardiner, Colin Greaves, Paulina Daw, Tracy Ibbotson, Bhautesh Jani, Kate Jolly , Frances Mair , Paula Ormandy, Susan Smith, Sally J Singh, Rod Taylor, BMJ Open, April 05, 2024 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-083255
Evidence for exercise-based interventions across 45 different long-term conditions: an overview of systematic reviews, Grace O. Dibben, Lucy Gardiner, Hannah M. L. Young, Valerie Wells, Rachael A. Evans, Zahira Ahmed, Shaun Barber, Sarah Dean, Patrick Doherty, Nikki Gardiner, Colin Greaves, Tracy Ibbotson, Bhautesh D. Jani, Kate Jolly, Frances S. Mair, Emma McIntosh, Paula Ormandy, Sharon A. Simpson, Sayem Ahmed, Stefanie J. Krauth, Lewis Steell, Sally J. Singh, Rod S. Taylor, on behalf of the PERFORM research team, eClinicalMedicine, April 30, 2024 10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102599
Cognitive Muscular Therapy (CMT) for people with asthma
Asthma is a condition which results in breathlessness because the tubes to the lungs become narrowed and swollen. Current NHS guidelines for asthma recommend the use of drugs which are designed to open-up narrowed airways. However, research has shown that 1/3 of people with asthma may experience breathlessness because of the way they use the muscles which control breathing. If this is the case, then it is important to provide breathing retraining to people with asthma who experience breathlessness, despite taking asthma medication.
There is some scientific evidence that breathing exercises can reduce breathlessness in people with asthma. However, current exercises only reduce breathlessness by a small amount. We suggest that this is because these treatments do not teach people to change postural muscle patterns which can make breathing more difficult and because patients don’t always understand how to improve their breathing.
We have developed a new physiotherapy treatment for joint pain which teaches patients to reduce tension in postural muscles. We have also developed computer software which uses small cameras to track body movements and uses this information to show breathing patterns on a videogame character as a patient breathes.
Aim of the research:
We will create a version of our treatment, called “Cognitive Muscular Therapy (CMT)”, for people with asthma. This treatment will include software to show a patient their breathing pattern on a computer screen as they breath. Once developed, we will test the treatment on 20 participants.
Key staff: Stephen Preece, Emma Swift, Adam Handley