Specialities
Home visits, Medico-legal / Expert witness, Neurology inc Stroke, MS, Older people's care
Payment options
Private
Further information
I am a specialist neuro-physiotherapist, with advanced knowledge and expertise gained through over 25 years clinical experience of working with people, who have neurological conditions to enable them to achieve their optimal rehabilitation potential. I work as an advanced 'hands on' practitioner who comprehensively assesses all aspects of movement, sensation, muscle power, balance, co-ordination, mobility, walking and function in an initial assessment appointment of 1.5 hours. This includes taking a full subjective history with details of any medical tests, diagnoses and treatments that the individual may have received and to understand and discuss potential treatment goals. I have extensive experience of working with people who have neurological injuries and diseases, including stroke, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), acquired brain injury, sub-arrachnoid haemorrhage, TIAs, brain and spinal tumours, incomplete spinal cord injury, Parkinsons Disease (PD), neuropathies, guillain barre syndrome, transverse myelitis, cerebellar disorders (ataxia), post neuro-surgical conditions. I also have experience of supporting individuals to improve posture, movement, strength and quality of life after general, orthopaedic and cancer surgery.
In addition, I am a Consultant Research Fellow and work as Co-Investigator for neuro-rehabilitation clinical research led by Dr Mohamed Sakel, MRCP, UK, Neuro-rehabilitation Service Director for East Kent and Consultant Physician in Rehabilitation Medicine. In this role, I have worked on a diverse range of clinical and qualitative research projects, which have included 3 robotic research studies into balance using an exoskeleton.
I am registered as a PhD doctoral research student at the Centre for Health Service Studies at the University of Kent, where I am undertaking research into the co-design of a resource deemed of value by and with survivors of moderate to severe traumatic brain injury living in the community. This research is part-time and is funded by a scholarship grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), for which I competed for and successfully won in 2020. The PhD is allied to the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration in Kent Surrey and Sussex (ARC KSS).
I have achieved a postgraduate qualification in Qualitative Research Methods from the University of Oxford and have completed a range of qualitative research studies, including one on 'Long Covid'. I have received Awards from NHS England for Clinical Leadership and the Research & Innovation Department at EKHUFT for Clinical Research projects with the Neuro-rehabilitation Service Director.
https://research.kent.ac.uk/chss/person/karen-saunders/
https://arc-kss.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/the-team/karen-saunders
Recent appointments:
- Core committee member of Kent Brain Injury Forum (UK) January 2024
- Review Editor for the Rehabilitation in Neurological Conditions section of the Frontiers Open Science platform and publishing journal (January 2022 to date).
- International Advisor to Kent Brain Injury Foundation charity organisation (October 2021 to date)
- Honorary Professor in Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation at Jashore University of Science and Technology in Bangladesh (April 2021 to date).
Research and education profile links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-saunders-2139b87a/
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Karen_Saunders9
Medico-legal:
I am registered as an independent Medico-legal Expert Witness with NRC Medical Experts https://www.nnrc.org.uk/expert-directory/#neuro-therapists and have experience in the clinical assessment of medico-legal clients and both clinical case and medico-legal report writing.
I am also registered as an independent Medico-legal Expert Witness with TMLEP https://www.tmlep.com/our-practice and have experience of medico-legal report writing through case referrals.
I am regularly invited to present keynote lectures and conference presentations in the UK and at international conferences. For example - I made the following 4 presentations below at 17th World Congress of International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) 2023, Cartagena, Colombia (04/06/23 – 08/06/23).
- Oral presentation of ‘Co-creating system wide improvement for people with traumatic brain injury across one integrated care system in the UK to initiate a transformation journey through co-production’
- Poster presentation of ‘Is it time for a paradigmatic shift in relation to healthcare in the UK? A Reflection.’
- Poster presentation of ‘Epidemiology of Traumatic Brain Injury in Kent and Medway, UK’ at
- Supported the oral presentation of ‘Feasibility and Safety of a Powered Exoskeleton for Balance Training for People living with Multiple Sclerosis. A Single-Group Preliminary Study (RAPPER III)’
- Prior to these, I presented 2 Keynote lectures at the NeuroConvention Birmingham NEC in July 2022 – PhD research into the long term health challenges of people who have survived traumatic brain injury & Rehabilitation research into balance using a robotic exoskeleton.
I have co-authored over 30 publications within the field of neuro-rehabilitation research and healthcare.
I have a professional twitter account @K_neurorobotics