Membership benefits of Rehab.NET
Network
Membership of Rehab.NET provides:
- a free bi-monthly e-mail bulletin offering targeted rehabilitation information; funding, conferences and events and the latest news and research jobs
- opportunity to promote your rehabilitation news, project or vacancies on the Rehab.NET web site and to direct research support enquiries to the Rehabilitation Research Co-ordinator
- links to local and affiliated research projects and to other network members with a shared research interest
- Sign up by emailing Neil Carpenter, N.A.Carpenter@bath.ac.uk
Member profiles
Dr Esther Crawley | Dr Kevin Gruffydd-Jones | Dr Nigel Harris | Professor Roger Orpwood |
Dr Esther Crawley
Paediatric Consultant, Royal United Hospital, Bath
Dr Esther Crawley joined the RUH in 2002 and is now a general paediatric consultant with a special interest in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME).
Esther is currently developing a regional service for children with chronic fatigue syndrome. This service covers 16 Primary care trust and 8 hospitals in the region with a responsibility for over 500, 000 children and young people.
To facilitate the service Esther has developed and managed a regional clinical network with hospital champions, delivering defined care pathways. Training has been provided in the regional hospitals, via the network, to increase awareness and knowledge of the recognition and management of chronic fatigue syndrome. Esther has also produced information leaflets on all aspects of rehabilitation and care for young people with CFS/ME. These leaflets are used nationally by clinicians, patients and patient groups.
Esther also represents the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health CFS/ME guideline group for NICE and is currently developing national NHS guidelines for treatment and service development. She is also a member of the steering group of patients and researchers in ME (PRIME) which is funded by General Universal Stores to bring patients and researchers together. Other National management roles include involvement in the management of DoH funded services as part of the Department of Health Clinical Network co-ordinating Centre Collaborative. Esther is also a also the medical advisor for the National young peoples support group AYME.
Esther is currently working with other Rehab.NET (please link to home page of Rehab.NET) members to produce proposals in the field of chronic fatigue syndrome/ME and the application of devices to improve cognitive processes. She has also developed strong collaborative research links with the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), Royal College of Paediatricians and Child Health (RCPCH) and the Department of Social Medicine in Bristol. These research interests have led to a number of publications and grant awards.
Esther is married with two young children and enjoys living in the centre of Bath.
Dr Kevin Gruffydd-Jones
Principal in General Practice and GP Trainer, Box, Wiltshire
Honorary Lecturer in Medical Sciences, University of Bath
Dr Kevin Gruffydd-Jones joined Box Surgery as a Principal in General Practice in 1984. Box Surgery is a semi-rural practice, 6 miles north-east of Bath. It covers 6300 patients and is a designated NHS research practice.
Kevin Gruffydd-Jones has a specialist interest in respiratory medicine. He is extremely active in this field and is a National Committee Member and Education Lead General Practice Airways Group (GPIAG), a respiratory lead for Kennet and North Wilts Primary Care Trust and a member of professional advisory panel and strategic advisory forum Asthma UK. In addition he also delivers around 50 lectures per year to local and national professional groups on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, publishes an average of 5 articles per year on respiratory medicine in nationally distributed medical journals and advances clinical research into asthma.
His current research project is ‘the effects of a tailored package of community-based pulmonary rehabilitation and support on hospital admissions in patients with exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD); a feasibility project*' with Mrs Carol Langley, Kennet and North Wilts PCTand Dr Chris Dyer, Royal United Hospital, Bath. His research interests have led to numerous publications and a number of research awards.
Dr Gruffydd-Jones' other medical interests include sports medicine, migraine and occupational health. Currently he is a GP Specialist in Sports Medicine at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, a Medical Officer with an Occupational Health role for the 21 Signals Regiment and joint Services Unit in Corsham and a Medical Examiner for PPP. He is also actively involved in research issues and is a member of Bath's Local Research Ethics Committee. Dr Gruffydd-Jones is a member of Rehab.NET and is actively contributing to the NHS R&D community rehabilitation programme with his COPD study*. As well as the University of Bath, Dr Gruffydd-Jones is an Honorary Lecturer, Dept. of Primary Care Respiratory Medicine, University of Aberdeen.
Dr Nigel Harris
Head of Clinical Measurement and Medical Imaging, RNHRD
Honorary Senior Lecturer, School for Health
Nigel Harris joined the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases (RNHRD) in 2001. During his career he has divided his time between clinical work, research and management.
His Clinical Measurement and Imaging team provides services to people in Bath and North East Somerset, West Wiltshire, Mendip and Bristol. DXA, Thermography, Laser Doppler imaging and capillaroscopy are used for investigations in conditions such as Osteoporosis, Raynaud's Phenomenon, Chronic pain syndromes and Connective Tissue Disorders.
Nigel Harris has a particular interest in physiological measurement, medical imaging, biomedical engineering and informatics. His research interests have led to a number of refereed papers and numerous grants and awards.
His research interests have led to a joint project with Sheffield Hallam University in SMART rehabilitation entitled ‘Technical applications for use in the home with stroke patients'. This research will examine the appropriateness and effectiveness of technology to support hospital or home based rehabilitation programmes for older people who have sustained a stroke, the aim being recovery and improvement of mobility.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and Engineering Medicine. Nigel Harris is a member of Rehab.NET and is contributing to the community rehabilitation programme with the SMART project.
Professor Roger Orpwood
Director of the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering
Professor Roger Orpwood became the Director of the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering (BIME) in 2004. BIME is a design and development charity working in the fields of medicine, health care and assistive technology for disabled people. The BIME team consists of electrical and mechanical design engineers work on a large number of projects ranging from technology for people living with dementia to very practical items of daily living equipment. BIME are able to take an initial idea through to a finished product. BIME's design philosophy is inclusive and the views of disabled people, carers and professionals are integral to our work.
The Institute is an independent body. It was founded, and continues to be maintained by charitable grants and donations. BIME is based at the Wolfson Centre, part of the Royal United Hospital in Bath. It is managed by the University of Bath and is guided by a board of trustees composed of medical consultants, university academics, scientists, engineers and industrialists. BIME's current Honorary President is Professor Sir Ara Darzi. BIME continues to work closely with other departments of the University, particularly Mechanical Engineering and the new School for Health. BIME has contacts with a wide range of special interest groups, clinicans, academics and other design/engineering organisations within the UK.
In addition to its design work, the Institute is funded by the Department of Health, as part of its Centre for Evidence-based Practice, to evaluate infusion devices, in order to improve patient infusion therapy and reduce the risk of injury or death from the use of this equipment.
Roger Orpwood originally trained as a Physiologist at Sheffield University, and went on to study a PhD in Neurophysiology at Liverpool University, looking at single unit responses in the rat cerebral cortex. A growing interest in enginering led to another degree in Mechanical Engineering in Liverpool University where he gained a first.
A period in industry followed, working as a design engineer in the aerospace industry designing mechanisms for use in commercial communication satellites, progressing to senior designer. A desire to channel his skills into designs that would make a postive impact on peoples lives led to a return to academia and a Research Officer post at Bath University, investigating the use of cryogenics in surgery, and a further PhD through the department of Mechanical Engineering. This led to employment in the NHS, originally joining the BIME team as a design engineer at BIME, where he is enjoying a rewarding career.
Roger Orpwood's contribution at BIME includes the application of smart homes for people with dementia and the famous BIME bottom wiper. Roger is particularly keen on user-led approaches to design work in the assistive technology field and has published several papers on design methodology in this area and is widely published in the medical engineering literature.
Nearly 300 projects have been completed since Roger joined the Institute, and over 100,000 products sold as a result. A key aim of the Institute is to ensure that successful designs are actually used by whoever can benefit. To this end Roger Orpwwod initiated a Production Facility at BIME to oversee the manufacture of successful designs that were not attracting other manufacturers. He is an active member of various advisory bodies and committees, including past Chair of the Biological Engineering Society's Publication Committee, and editorial board membership of the Journal Medical Engineering and Physics.
His real passion is for the application of creative design engineering to solving real problems faced by real people with healthcare needs.
His only regret is that he is unable to be actively involved in design work any more, and instead oversees the work of a very creative team of mechanical and electronics designers at BIME. However he has also maintained his early interest in the neurosciences and has run a programme of work in computational neuroscience in his spare time for many years. This has led to a number of publications and book chapters, and editorial board membership of the journal Integrative Neuroscience.
Roger Orpwood has visiting chairs in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Bath, and more recently in the School for Health.