Last month Lucy attended Physiotherapy UK 2012, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy’s flagship event, along with around 900 delegates in Liverpool. As well as having the opportunity to soak up all the latest news and evidence from the full 2-day programme of presentations, Lucy also attended to present her MSc research poster. This was one of three posters and one podium presentation from a University of Southampton research team who have carried out reliability studies of a novel portable device for testing mechanical properties of muscle. The research is lead by Professor Maria Stokes, who attended to support the team at congress. The device has possible clinical application as an objective marker in a neurological setting, and Lucy hopes to one day be able to translate findings from her lab-based research into using the device with patients in her clinical practice. Lucy’s research has also now been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
A pertinent point that Lucy took from the meeting was: ‘if every single physio published one piece of research during their careers, we would have 50,000 pieces of new evidence’. We are hoping to do our bit towards this with our ongoing Bolton Neuro Voices hydrotherapy project, with support from our local Allied Health Professions Research Network (AHPRN) Hub; read more about the project on our Hydrotherapy page, results from the first sessions will be coming soon on our Outcomes Page.