Profile

Ledia Alushi

PhD

Ledia joined the Applied Research Collaboration – East of England (ARC EoE) team in October 2020. She graduated first in her class with a BSc in Physiotherapy from the Technological Educational Institute of Lamia, Greece in 2012. Ledia has worked clinically in a variety of specialities in secondary and tertiary care, at leading teaching University hospitals such as St George’s Hospital in London and Cambridge University Hospitals.

Prior to her clinical work, Ledia collaborated with prominent scientists and researchers in the field of stroke, vestibular rehabilitation, and ageing at King’s College London and Kingston and the St George’s University of London. Ledia has a strong scientific background through her research roles in a NIHR funded trial investigating the acceptability and feasibility of providing a self-management programme for individuals who have had a stroke and varying degrees of aphasia. As a research physiotherapist, Ledia also co-led an educational project aiming to develop an innovative evidence-based learning programme for pre-qualifying health and social care students, to enable them to communicate more effectively with people with dementia; a project which won the Excellence and Innovation in Healthcare Education and Training award by the Health Education South London in 2013.

Ledia is currently doing her PhD in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge. Her PhD project sits under the ARC theme of Ageing and Multi-morbidity and will address the issues of early allied health professional involvement in the care of people with Parkinson’s Disease. With her PhD, Ledia aims to promote the benefits of exercise, to utilise the expertise of people with Parkinson’s Disease so as to collaboratively develop and evaluate effective interventions that can be implemented with the purpose of improving the physical, emotional and social well-being of people with Parkinson’s Disease.

Her research interests encompass physical activity in the ageing population, in people with neurodegenerative disorders, in particular Parkinson’s Disease and preventive strategies that promote independent living for older adults.

PhD Project - Co-designing a physical health education programme for people newly diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease: a mixed-methods study.

email: la463@cam.ac.uk