Prof Susan Coote

Susan is an Associate Professor in Physiotherapy in the Department of Clinical Therapies. Her clinical speciality is neurological rehabilitation and she has extensive clinical, teaching and research experience in this area. She was the recipient of the UL Excellence in Research (Early Career) award 2012 and was shortlisted for the UL Excellence in Teaching award in 2014. She is a member of the Health Research Institute and Centre for Physical Activity and Health Research at UL. She is director of MS Research Team at UL and leads a programme of research that aims to reduce symptom severity and improve quality of life for people with MS and other neurological conditions living in the community. Her research programme includes physiotherapy and exercise programmes, the use of technology in rehabilitation, and falls prevention and translation of research to practice. She chairs the physiotherapists interested in MS community of practice and works in close collaboration with MS Ireland, with whom UL have a memorandum of understanding for research and knowledge sharing activities since 2011. Current research projects include Step it Up – a RCT of exercise plus behaviour change interventions to enhance physical activity for people with MS – funded by the Health Research Board. Other projects funded by MS Ireland through the Ireland fund are Activity Matters - the development of a web resource to enable people with MS to be more active; Falls Prevention in MS – development and evaluation of fall prevention programmes for people with MS; and Fall prediction in MS – the evaluation of a smart phone application for falls prediction in an acute neurology clinic.