Rehabilitation Matters is a series of stories and perspectives from people who care about effective clinical rehabilitation and the benefits it provides. Started in Spring 2021 with this article by NRC Programme Director Miriam Duffy, the series includes viewpoints from patients, clinicians, surgeons, academic partners and others.
My interest in rehablitation and injury began from a young age.
As a child, I was obsessed with playing and watching sports, and was lucky enough to represent my county at rugby (league and union). When I left school, I joined the Army and got involved into the sporting side of things, in particular rugby and cross-country skiing. It was through this that I saw a lot of very able people suffer serious injuries, causing setbacks on a professional, physical and mental level.
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I come from an engineering background and I’ve always been particularly interested in the role technology can play in healthcare and clinical rehabilitation. I have spent the past 20 years researching technology that has benefits in both physical and mental health.
The UK lags behind our European counterparts in terms of workforce numbers for the specialty of Rehabilitation Medicine. We have one-tenth of the workforce (per unit population) when compared to most developed European countries including France, Italy and Germany. This no doubt has an impact on our influence as a medical specialty to improve rehabilitation care for many long-term conditions.
I joined the University of Nottingham just a few months ago, taking on the role of Engagement Co-ordinator to support the University’s involvement in developing the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), and already I can tell the NRC is going to be a pretty special place.
There is a lot of great work going on to develop new healthcare technologies. The National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) and its Rehab Technologies Network+ is doing a fantastic job at bringing experts together to explore increasing the use of technology in rehabilitation to help get people back to fitness and function faster following serious injury or illness. One area I’m specifically interested in is telerehabilitation, which involves the remote delivery of rehabilitation services using telecommunication devices, such as smartphones and tablets.
As an academic, I live and breathe research and development. So I may be biased when I say it’s a very exciting time to be working in this space. Ever-advancing technology is increasing the potential scope of research – and rehabilitation is one area where we have a particularly fantastic opportunity to do something special in the UK.
Sadly, the number of people who get back to full functionality following a significant head injury is very small. Even those without such significant head injuries can suffer long term physical, psychological and emotional complications. So for those of us working in neuro surgery, it’s vital that we do everything we can to get these patients to a point where they are able to function well in society and have the best possible quality of life.
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