AVERT Early Rehabilitation Research Group

A major project of our current research program is the AVERT DOSE trial, an international randomised trial recruiting patients in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Ireland, India and Brazil. Led by Professor Julie Bernhardt, this trial aims to identify the most effective mobility training program early after stroke. As a part of this trial, collaborators Professor Vincent Thijs and Dr Kate Hayward aim to better understand the contribution of biology (genetics and brain markers) to stroke recovery.

Our team is also working on how the hospital environment can be optimised to accelerate neurological recovery and create the ideal rehabilitation service. Central to this is the Neuroscience Optimised Virtual Living Lab (NOVELL), and interdisciplinary Living Lab that includes industry, researchers, clinicians, policy makers, and people with lived experience of stroke, to reimaging and then redesign hospital environment and services. NOVELL Redesign is an award-winning project (European Health Design Conference 2022; Winner Design Research Project) that will complete in 2023. Virtual reality forms an important part of evaluation and exhibition of these unique spaces.

Professor Julie Bernhardt also leads a global collaboration of research and clinical experts, funders and consumers called the International Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Alliance (ISRRA). The natural extension of work initiated during the NHMRC-funded the Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Stroke Rehabilitation and Brain Recovery to build global recommendation for research in this field (see the Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable). The vision of this new alliance is ‘a world where global collaboration brings major breakthroughs for people living with stroke’.