NHS Grampian, Aberdeen

o Alastair Cozens is a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine who specialises in the posture and movement rehabilitation of adults and children with neurological disability. He is a member oif the Scottish Stroke Research Network. His research seeks to improve patients’ recovery by understanding the motor learning mechanisms which underpin rehabilitation, and developing methods of enhancing re-learning in conditions such as stroke. He published the first electromyographic evidence that robotic techniques can be used to support active upper limb exercises in patient s with stroke and multiple sclerosis.

Dr Cozens has particular expertise in computational techniques for analysis of patients’ movement patterns, and for combing these analyses with clinical data to generate control instructions for therapeutic devices. Drawing upon his experience as a practising clinician, he has used these technques to develop clinically-oriented software for various research projects. Together with Prof Bipin Bhakta and Dr Martin Levesley, he is a member of the multidisciplinary team which is developing the iPAM upper limb therapy robot. He also participates in the Rehabilitation Technology User Group, which involves patients and carers in projects such as iPAM