Get involved in our respiratory research

Research opportunities for research physiotherapists

We have three paid opportunities for respiratory physiotherapists to get involved in ongoing respiratory research at the University of Salford. These include:

1. A secondment for 15 months (1 day per week) to help us refine and test a completely new intervention for people with asthma and breathing pattern disorder
2. Testing a new breathing biofeedback system for patients with breathing pattern disorder
3. A workshop aiming to help us understand existing respiratory physiotherapy practice and seek suggestions on how to develop our new intervention

Overview of respiratory research at the University of Salford

We have a programme of research focused on quantify/measuring the biomechanics of breathing. As part of this work, we have developed a new 3D ultrasound technique for measuring diaphragm motion, created an approach for quantifying respiratory muscle activity using EMG and developed a system which can estimate tidal flow from two inexpensive 3D cameras. Using this camera system, we have created a breathing biofeedback system which can visualise the mechanics of breathing on a personalised avatar in real-time (as the patient breathes).

Alongside our technical innovation, we have developed a completely new intervention for breathing pattern disorder, called Cognitive Muscular Therapy (CMT). This intervention was originally developed was chronic pain and teaches patients to reduce overactivity of postural muscles and improve respiratory function by increasing both diaphragm and costovertebral motions. We are currently testing an implementation of CMT for long-COVID and have just received funding from the NIHR to create and test an implementation of CMT for people with asthma + breathing pattern disorder. This implementation will include our breathing biofeedback system to guide breathing retraining.

Below are further details of our research opportunities. Please contact Prof Steve Preece (s.preece@salford.ac.uk) if you are interested before the 18^th April.

Opportunity 1: Secondment for 15 months, 1 day per week 

We are currently looking to identify a respiratory physiotherapist to work on our NIHR funded project focused on asthma. This placement will require you to come to the University of Salford (Manchester) one day per week and work alongside our experienced respiratory physiotherapist to deliver the research. This will involve consulting with patients and physiotherapists to design the intervention, delivering the intervention to patients and using patient feedback to refine the treatment. We will provide full training, and no previous experience of research is required. This placement would be ideally suited to anyone who is interested in getting involved in research. The placement is fully paid (we can pay backfill to your trust or pay your directly) and open to a respiratory physiotherapist at Grade 6 or above.   

Opportunity 2: Testing our new breathing biofeedback system 

We are in the process of testing our new breathing biofeedback system. To do this, we want to bring respiratory physiotherapists into the University of Salford and have them deliver breathing retraining to patients with breathing pattern disorder. For this study, physiotherapists will deliver in line with their normal practice but will use the breathing biofeedback at specified points during the treatment. After the treatment has finished, we will seek physiotherapists feedback on how we could improve the technology. We will provide full training, and no previous experience of research is required. We can be flexible on dates/time and the number of patients treated. The placement is fully paid (we can pay backfill to your trust or pay your directly) and open to respiratory physiotherapists at Grade 6 or above.  

Opportunity 3: Attend a workshop

As part of our NIHR funded project focused on asthma, we will be running a half-day workshop to understand physiotherapist’s perceptions of our proposed new treatment. At this workshop, we will present the treatment and seek opinions and how it could be improved and on how we should be incorporating existing respiratory physiotherapy practice. This is a paid opportunity (we can pay backfill to your trust or pay your directly) and open to respiratory physiotherapists at Grade 6 or above.  The workshop will take place in July 2025.