Section of Musculoskeletal Disease

Bipin Bhakta

REHABILITATION MEDICINE GROUP

Charterhouse Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine

b.bhakta@leeds.ac.uk

The Rehabilitation Medicine Research program seeks to improve the treatments and outcomes of people with disability particularly that arising from neurological and musculoskeletal disorders. Three research themes within this program are: Movement Science and Restorative Rehabilitation Technologies; Psychometrics for Health Outcomes; Epidemiology and Health Services Research. A ke aspect of these research themes is that they involve collaboration between institutions and faculties and are multidisciplinary (e.g. doctors, nurses, therapists, psychologists, engineers). The focus of the movement science and rehabilitation robotics research program is the investigation of motor deficits in neurological diseases affecting adults and children. Using this knowledge to develop and evaluate new and existing rehabilitation treatments. This program encompasses investigation of motor learning and movement control in healthy controls and people with neurological disease, the development of intelligent robotics to aid physical therapy in people with neurological conditions such as stroke, application and evaluation of computer technologies to aid functional independence in children with disability such those with cerebral palsy. Key infrastructure supporting these research programs is the Restorative Rehabilitation Technologies Laboratory and the Psychometric Laboratory which is the leading European teaching and research centre for the application of modern psychometric theory to health outcome measurement.

Departmental activities have been supported through funding from the Department of Health, E.U., Charitable Bodies and SRIF 3, The department has local collaborations (e.g. Rheumatology, Neurology, Paediatrics, Elderly Medicine, Medical Physics, Mechanical Engineering); national academic collaborations (e.g. Aberdeen, Manchester, Belfast, Glasgow); and internationally within the European Union and Australia. In addition to supporting postgraduate research, the department also provides cross disciplinary support of undergraduate research through intercalated BSc medical student and Level 3/4 mechanical engineering student projects.

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