University of Southampton

Faculty Member, School of Health Sciences

Other Affiliations: University of Southampton, Rehabilitation and Health Technologies Research Group
University of Southampton, Southampton NIHR Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit

Reader in Respiratory Rehabilitation

Faculty of Health Sciences

About

I lead Respiratory Research within the Faculty of Health Sciences http://www.soton.ac.uk/about/faculties/faculty_health_sciences.html.
I also lead the Allied Health Professions Research Network Hub in Southampton http://www.csp.org.uk/ahprn-southampton

My research is about improving the lives of people with respiratory dysfunction. My current activity is in:
i) nonpharmacological therapies for respiratory disorders (breathing techniques, pulmonary rehabilitation, oxygen therapy)
ii) noninvasive respiratory monitoring (computerised lung sounds and breathing pattern analysis)
iii) finding strategies to improve adherence to respiratory therapies.

We have recently secured NIHR HTA funding to develop and trial digital formats for delivering breathing retraining for asthma: BREATHE (Breathing REtraining for Asthma Trial of Home Exercises) Oct 2011-2016.

My work involves cross disciplinary collaborations with industrial partners, engineers and clinical colleagues. One of these collaborations (with Luxfer Gas Cylinders Ltd) led to funding from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) - http://www.nihr.ac.uk/research. This resulted in the development of an innovative portable oxygen system (called the IOS – intelligent oxygen system - http://luxfer-ios.com ). We have also secured further NIHR funding to develop new electronic controls and feedback systems for oxygen delivery (2010-13).

I am always interested to hear from potential research collaborators in any of my main areas of interest (see below), and to discuss possible programmes with potential doctoral/post doctoral fellows.

i) Nonpharmacological therapies for respiratory disorders (breathing techniques, pulmonary rehabilitation, oxygen therapy). This area encompasses breathing retraining for asthma (effectiveness, method of delivery, physiological outcomes), the development of patient-friendly, efficient and reliable portable oxygen delivery systems, and exploring perceptions of patients attending pulmonary rehabilitation.

ii) Noninvasive respiratory monitoring (computerised lung sounds, breathing pattern analysis, respiratory physiology)
This area encompasses the longitudinal monitoring of chronic respiratory disorders (such as asthma and COPD), and baseline/outcome assessments to determine the effectiveness of specific respiratory interventions. We are developing novel techniques for use in both acute and home settings.

iii) Finding strategies to improve adherence to respiratory therapies. This area runs as an essential binding thread through all my research programmes. At present my main interest is in improving adherence to breathing therapies, pulmonary rehabilitation and oxygen therapies.

Contact Information