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The Multiple Sclerosis Aqua Research Team (MSART), comprising a team of academics and physiotherapy students from the university’s School of Health Sciences and clinicians from the Burrswood Hospital in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, saw off competition from teams around the country to win the Evidence in Practice category of the Quality of Delivery of Service in Multiple Sclerosis Awards.

Dr Raija Kuisma, project leader, Principal Lecturer and Course Leader of MSc in Rehabilitation Science (Physiotherapy) in the College of Life, Health and Physical Sciences, said: “The team is delighted with the success. This a great achievement and one that reflects the hard work and commitment from everyone involved with the project.”

The team comprises: Dr Raija Kuisma, Krishna Kishore Garikipati, Senior Lecturer, studying MS and aquatic physiotherapy for a MS Society, a UK funded doctoral theses; Sarah-Jane Ryan, Senior Lecturer with interest in aquatic physiotherapy; Oliver Krouwel, graduate from the MSc in Rehabilitation Science (Physiotherapy) course, and lead of the physiotherapy research team at the hospital at the start of the project and Jennie Turnbull the current Physiotherapy lead at Burrswood.

Right to left, Sarah –Jane Ryan, Krishna Kishore Garikipati, Jennie Turnbull, Raija Kuisma and Oliver Krouwel with Jim Porter, Neuroscience Franchise Head at Novartis (one of the 2015 programme sponsors).

Oliver and the team developed individualised aquatic programmes for people with MS and a Burrswood Standardised Data Collection Tool with the support of Dr Gerry Saldanha, Consultant Neurologist, and Sue Pople, Head of Physiotherapy at the time at Burrswood.

MSART completed 16 research projects and two masters-level projects are ongoing. In the last five years, 15 physiotherapy students from the university’s School of Health Sciences have completed MSART projects and presented them as their final year theses. The projects included a range of quantitative and qualitative designs that looked at the effects of aquatic physiotherapy on the balance, gait, fatigue, health related quality of life and experiences of people with MS. MSART published an e-book audit of the datasets of 100 people with MS.

Krishna Kishore Garikipati doctoral candidate said: “Due to the success of the programme and a detailed analysis of the outcomes that showed benefits to people with MS, the hospital received further funding to continue the aquatic physiotherapy programme for people with MS. We continue our collaboration and more students will have a chance to join this active research group.”