Annual conferences

The PRS Annual Conference is the main activity organized by the Society. Below is a summary of what you can expect, along with a brief overview of recent conferences and our plans for this year.

Each year, the Society organises a scientific conference, usually in the late Spring. The Society aims to hold the meetings in different locations throughout the UK - the location is determined by the whereabouts of volunteers from the organising committee! Spring 2012 will see us at Sheffield Hallam University on 30th May 2012.

The meetings disseminate physiotherapy research and highlight topics relevant to physiotherapy research. They are designed to encompass a range of experience from the most experienced leaders in a field to those new to research. The Society welcomes new researchers such as those who have recently completed Undergraduate or Masters research projects and who would wish to present their research work.

For our 2012 conference we will be welcoming Stephen May, Lisa Roberts and John Saxton as our keynot speakers to discuss:

the evolution of the Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy approach to Low Back Pain management,
the concept of therapeutic relationship and ways of improving adherence to exercise and advice
and changing physical activity behaviour in people with long term conditions.

These topics have been chosen as Key Note lectures with an eye on the main challanges facing physiotherapy in 2012 and the CSP Research Priorities exercise. Our call for abstracts is out now (go to our Abstracts page to submit) and closes on the 8th March 2012.

2011 Conference

Our last conference was at Keele University on the 5th May 2011. Our guest speakers were Julius Sim, Krysia Dziedzic and Jonathan Hill.The conference had a focus on musculoskeletal practice with Krysia Dziedic discussing musculoskeletal therapies in Primary Care and Jonathan Hill presenting some of the ground breaking findings from the ongoing STarT Back clinical trial. Krysia's and Jonathan's presentation can be downloaded from the foot of this page. Professor Sim presented some very illuminating thoughts around Informed Consent in Health Care research.

A range of research was presented around many different aspects relevant to physiotherapy. Click here for the programme including the abstracts and the details of the key note speakers. You can also read the abstracts and our the free paper presentations on the Abstracts page.

The three highest scoring abstracts in the review process were:

Pearson et al "The acceptability to patients of PhysioDirect telephone advice and treatment services: a qualitative investigation"
Kerr et al "Validity of measuring the sit-to-walk movement with an inertial sensor"
Dixon et al "The effect of textured insoles on gait in people with multiples sclerosis"

Jennifer Muhaidat won the Primary Care Sciences prize for the best research presentation for her presentation on the feasibility of dual task performance in community dwelling fallers and non-fallers. This prize was sponsored by The Primary Care and Health Sciences Research Centre at Keele University.

The PalTechnologies prize for the best poster presentation went to Barbara Introwicz for her poster on the exploration of blood vessels in the sciatic nerve.