Research Assistant Tash Kirk presented a poster alongside Carolyn Taylor from Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust titled: “Weight Management Interventions for people with Spinal Cord Injury: A systematic review and qualitative synthesis”, which was awarded the Penny Mullen prize for the best poster presentation. Tash said:
“MASCIP was a very thought-provoking experience for me. Hearing all of the wonderful work and research within the SCI community. As a relatively new member to this field, I feel very grateful to have had the opportunity to attend such an inspiring event”.
The weight management poster is a project led by Vicky Tolfrey and James King that was funded by ARC-EM (NIHR) with the collaboration of Claire Madigan, Sven Hoekstra, Henrietta Graham and former RA, Jordan Fenton. Members of this team will be hosting an online webinar titled: “Exercise and Weight Management in Persons with a Spinal Cord Injury”. Fore more information about the event, visit the site here. To sign up, follow the booking link.
This is a free online symposium which will bring together scientists and clinicians to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art practice and research in the field of exercise and weight management in persons with SCI.
Also at the conference was Doctoral Researcher Lynsey Speirs. Lynsey gave an oral presentation based on the findings from an Enterprise Project Group (EPG) Loughborough University (LU) funded project led by Vicky Tolfrey, David Maidment and Sven Hoekstra. Lynsey and fellow Doctoral student James Haley gathered data from some focus groups at Sheffield coordinated by Vicki Middleton (Physiotherapist at the spinal injury unit at Sheffield Hospitals). This work was entitled “Evidence-based SCI exercise guidelines: a focus group study assessing perceptions of promotional materials.” After an excellent presentation, Lynsey brought back more prizes for the PHC after winning the best oral presentation prize. Lynsey said:
“I was delighted to be able to present at the 2023 MASCIP conference. It was the perfect opportunity to promote and disseminate spinal cord injury exercise guidelines among health care professionals working in clinical practice. We were also able to distribute exercise guideline infographic posters directly to delegates representing spinal cord injury centres across the UK, achieving one of the main goals of the project! In addition, the MASCIP conference was a valuable networking and professional development opportunity for me personally, and I am extremely grateful to Professor Vicky Tolfrey, Dr David Maidment, and Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist Vicki Middleton, for the support.”
Congratulations to Tash and Lynsey and the wider research teams for their success at the conference!