Media Release

Major trial into very early rehabilitation after stroke

20 July 2006

RMH Physiotherapy Research Coordinator Associate Professor Julie Bernhardt, leads a team awarded $2.8 million for a trial of very early rehabilitation after stroke.

The five-year grant, awarded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, will enable the multidisciplinary team of stroke rehabilitation researchers based at the National Stroke Research Institute, Heidelberg, to conduct the trial in 10 hospitals throughout Australia.

Getting patients up and about within 24 hours of suffering a stroke is the focus of the AVERT study (A Very Early Rehabilitation Trial).

Associate Professor Bernhardt said: “This research grant is fantastic; it will allow us to complete the largest and most comprehensive rehabilitation study of its kind. Not only will we determine whether very early rehabilitation saves lives and reduces disability, we will also look at the cost-effectiveness of the intervention.

”This research tests the effect of very early rehabilitation provided by physiotherapists and nurses. Preliminary research from Norway suggests that very early rehabilitation is beneficial for stroke patients, but this needs to be tested in a controlled trial.”

Associate Professor Bernhardt has worked in the RMH precinct for more than 15 years, first as a senior clinician in rehabilitation, before she combined research training with clinical work. She has been the RMH Physiotherapy Research Coordinator since 1998, and is undertaking post-doctoral research at the National Stroke Research Institute.

”I have always enjoyed my role here, providing research support, mentoring and encouraging new researchers,” Associate Professor Bernhardt said.

”In the last year, we have had two papers accepted for publication on projects initiated and conducted here and with collaborators at Broadmeadows and Sunshine Hospitals. Another project implementing a best practice model of shoulder care at RMH (led by Melissa DeGruyter and Rebecca Nicks) should lead to positive changes in patient management here and beyond RMH.”

Physiotherapy colleague, Associate Professor Keith Hill, National Ageing Research Institute (located on the RMH Royal Park Campus), and head of the multidisciplinary RMH Falls and Balance Clinic, also received three NHMRC grants with a range of collaborators, for research on falls and balance in different populations.