Associate Professor Ilse Brannagan
Group Leader, Critical Care Recovery Group
Research that follows patients from the ward to home.
Five research groups working across four themes to make surgery, intensive care and rehabilitation safer and kinder.
Looking for people now
8 studies are recruiting. Each page says who can take part, what is involved and who to email. Taking part is always your choice.
After Intensive Care
Following patients and families for a year after an intensive care stay.
Breathe Easy at Home
Guided breathing and strength exercises by video call in the first eight weeks home after intensive care.
Fit for Surgery
A four-week home exercise and nutrition programme before major surgery.
Follow-up in the Community
Post-operative check-ups at a local community clinic instead of the hospital.
Step Count Check
Does a phone step counter tell us as much as a clinic walking test?
Talking About Pain Relief
Testing a plain-language guide, written with patients, to pain relief in the first week home after surgery.
The Day Two Study
Can a single blood test on the second day after bowel surgery show who needs closer follow-up?
Wound Check by Phone
Can a photo of your wound, sent from home, pick up infection as early as a clinic visit?
Welcome from the Head of Department
Our department brings together surgeons, intensivists, physiotherapists, nurses, engineers and community partners. We study what happens to people before, during and long after their time in hospital, and we put the answers back into care.
This site is the front door to that work: our themes, our groups, the studies you can join and the people behind them.
Research themes
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Earlier detection and smarter tests
Finding complications sooner, with tests that are quicker, cheaper and kinder to patients.
5 studies
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Recovery and rehabilitation
What helps people get back on their feet after surgery, intensive care or injury, and how to make it last.
10 studies
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Care closer to home
Moving follow-up, monitoring and rehabilitation out of the hospital and into communities.
9 studies
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Fair access and community partnership
Designing studies with communities, so the benefits of research reach everyone who needs them.
6 studies
Research groups
Inflammation and Healing Lab
How the body's immune response shapes healing after major surgery.
4 studies · 3 people
Perioperative Outcomes Group
Better decisions before, during and after an operation.
3 studies · 3 people
Critical Care Recovery Group
Life after intensive care, for patients and their families.
4 studies · 2 people
Digital Rehabilitation Lab
Wearables, apps and remote coaching for rehabilitation.
3 studies · 2 people
Community Trials Unit
Trials designed with, and run in, the communities they serve.
3 studies · 2 people
Our people
Dr Felix Ormsby
Group Leader, Digital Rehabilitation Lab
Dr Priya Castellane
Group Leader, Community Trials Unit
Dr Tobias Wrenfield
Group Leader, Perioperative Outcomes Group
Professor Marguerite Ashdown
Group Leader, Inflammation and Healing Lab
Latest news
- Fit for Surgery opens to new participants
Our home prehabilitation trial is now recruiting at Tidewater Regional Hospital.
- Wound Check by Phone is open
Reposted from the Inflammation and Healing Lab's LinkedIn page. The lab's new study asks whether wound photos sent from home can spot infection early.
- Webinar: life after intensive care
A recording of our public webinar with patients and families is now online.
Study and work with us
For students
We supervise honours, master's and PhD students, and offer summer research scholarships every year.
Work with us
We collaborate with clinicians, researchers, community organisations and industry partners. If our work is close to yours, we would like to hear from you.