Since 2021, Strathclyde’s Rehabilitation Engineering team has been addressing the huge imbalance between those needing rehabilitation after stroke, and the shortage of NHS physiotherapists available to provide it at the recommended levels, thanks to support from the Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust.

Dr Andy Kerr and his team, in collaboration with Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland, have shown that adapting standard gym and exercise equipment to include gaming and visual feedback improves volunteers’ mobility and dexterity after their 8 week, technologically driven, group rehabilitation programme. Walking, everyday activities and quality of life can get better thanks to this approach.

Having seen such positive results on campus and in Wishaw General Hospital, we are now taking the stroke rehabilitation model into the community across Scotland thanks to further philanthropic funding. Three stroke rehabilitation hubs are being established in Edinburgh, South Lanarkshire, and Dundee, staffed by NHS-trained assistant practitioners and physiotherapists, making this life changing rehab much more accessible.

Meanwhile, on campus we continue to seek funding to adapt this rehabilitation model to other neurological conditions including Parkinson’s, spinal cord injury and dementia.

Please join us to help improve lives and revolutionise rehabilitation provision in the UK.