Biography

Ali has extensive experience working as a physiotherapist within the NHS developing specialised neurological skills and leadership abilities. She is an experienced academic working as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Allied Health Professions (2003 to date) teaching neurological and research components and supervising undergraduate and postgraduate research projects, some linked with international collaborators. She is also a doctoral student supervisor. In addition, Ali works as a Clinical Academic in the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (2019 to date) with a remit of driving neurological research, actively seeking opportunities to drive research skills and capacity within the allied health professions.

Ali’s PhD ‘Somatosensory stimulation to improve lower-limb recovery after stroke’ was undertaken as part of an NIHR Clinical Academic Doctoral Fellowship (2015-18) and her pilot and feasibility study was published in 2021. Ali’s research interests include neurorehabilitation, with a particular focus on people post-stroke as well as patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE). Ali recently completed an NIHR CRN Research Scholarship and a West Midlands Post-Doctoral Bridging Fellowship and is now seeking further funding to take her research forward.

Ali leads the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust’s Neurological Critical Appraisal Topic (CAT) group, co-leads the Neurological Rehabilitation Faculty Research subtheme at Keele University, is Chair of the Physiotherapy Research (national) Society (2020 to date) and is a member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Professional Awards Panel.

Orcid link: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6735-3578

Research and scholarship

As part of a prestigious NIHR Clinical Academic Doctoral fellowship (completed between April 2015 and March 2018) I successfully developed standardised protocols and then set up and ran a mixed-methods, randomized, blinded feasibility study exploring sensory stimulation to the foot post-stroke. Details of this study can be found at: ISRCTN - ISRCTN13676183: Sensory stimulation of the foot and ankle early post-stroke. This work has been published in Frontiers of Neurology – Stroke 

My three-year doctoral fellowship enabled further development of my clinical and leadership skills and opportunities to build international collaborations working with Professor Susan Hillier (University of South Australia) and Associate Professor Ingvars Birznieks (Neuroscience Research Australia). In preparation for the fellowship, I worked as a blinded assessor for the FAST INdiCATE trial: “Clinical efficacy of functional strength training for upper limb motor recovery early after stroke: neural correlates and prognostic indicators”. This multi-centre, randomised, controlled, observer-blind trial was funded by the NIHR/MRC Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) programme, and was sponsored by University of East Anglia, Norwich.  I have recently completed a West Midlands Post-Doctoral Bridging Fellowship and an NIHR CRN Research Scholarship, both of which are facilitating moving my research forward to help benefit stroke survivors in the future.

Research interests

  • Somatosensory stimulation to improve lower-limb recovery, balance and gait post-stroke 
  • Neuroplasticity and rehabilitation of stroke patients
  • Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE)

I also currently supervise an Occupational Therapy PhD student who is exploring wheelchair services for children with neurological disorders.

Teaching

I work as a Senior Lecturer; I have many years of experience teaching at all levels, undergraduate and postgraduate, mainly within the field of neurology or research. I also supervise undergraduate, postgraduate taught (PGT) student projects and postgraduate research (PGR) students. I am currently module lead for three modules: Concepts of Neurological Rehabilitation (postgraduate), Research Skills and Funding (a level 7 module on the integrated Master of Science programme), and Essentials of Physiotherapy Assessment (a module on the pre-registration MSc programme).

I have successfully undertaken many roles and responsibilities within SAHP: Chair of the Health and Conduct Committee; Senior Tutor; Programme Lead for the MSc Neurological Rehabilitation; Year Head; Disability Liaison Officer; SAHP lead for Patient and Public Involvement; SAHP link for the Impact Accelerator Unit; Deputy Academic Conduct Officer; SAHP representative for the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences User and Carer Liaison Group; member of the admissions team; and numerous module leader roles at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Publications

Supervision

I am currently supervising a PhD student:

  • Sarah Alsuwailam. Title of PhD: Healthcare professionals’ and parents’ experiences of wheelchair service provision for children with neurological conditions in the United Kingdom and Kuwait.

Collaboration

I have been involved in the following collaborations of externally funded projects:

  • Somatosensory stimulation of the lower limb to improve balance and gait post-stroke: a feasibility study, (also known as the MoTaStim-Foot study), a funded NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship for me, supervised by Dr Sue Hunter, Professor Val Pomeroy, Professor Julius Sim and Emeritus Professor Sue Read.
  • STROKESTRA® Stoke in collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust Community Stroke Team, New Vic Borderlines (Stoke-on-Trent) with funding support from Goodwins PLC (Stoke)
  • Clinical efficacy of functional strength training for upper limb motor recovery early after stroke: neural correlates and prognostic indicators – randomized controlled trial (also known as FAST-INdiCATE trial), funded by NIHR / MRC Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) project grant. I worked as a blinded assessor on the trial. Research team: Pomeroy V, Ward N, Johansen-Berg H, van Vliet P, Burridge J, Hunter SM, Lemon R, Rothwell J, Weir C, Wing A, Walker A, Kennedy N, Barton G, Greenwood R, Chandler E, Grey M, Leavey N, Havis C
  • Proposal to conduct a qualitative documentary review of public involvement reports of NIHR Centralised Commissioning Facility (CCF)-managed infrastructure organisations to identify best practice. Research team: Dr A Moult, Dr S Blackburn, Dr T Kingstone, Dereth Baker and Dr Z Paskins.
  • Systematic Review Workshops funded by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy network funding stream. Team: Dr A Benham (University of Huddersfield), Caroline Coulthard (Ashford and St Peter’s hospitals NHS trust), Jayanti Rai (Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust), Dr Caroline Belchamber (AECC University College, Bournemouth).

School of Allied Health Professions
MacKay Building
Keele University
Staffordshire
ST5 5BG

Enquiries:
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