Julie Bernhardt

Professor Julie Bernhardt AM FAHMS is an Australian physiotherapist and clinician scientist, a Principal Research Fellow and an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and Clinical Head of the Stroke Division at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne. Bernhardt is Principal Investigator of the 'A Very Early Rehabilitation Trial' (AVERT) and a leader in the field of stroke recovery.

Bernhardt is the director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Stroke Rehabilitation and Brain Repair, a collaboration between the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, the Hunter Medical Research Institute and other institutions.[1] This group works to improve stroke rehabilitation and recovery through various areas of research, including basic science, imaging, and clinical trials.[2]

Bernhardt founded and chaired the international Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable (SRRR), a partnership involving sixty leading stroke experts which aims to advance stroke rehabilitation research by establishing consensus on how to develop, conduct, and report stroke research.[3] She led the second SRRR in 2018, on developing international clinical trials to improve stroke treatment.[4]

Early life and education

Bernhardt has a Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy from the Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences, La Trobe University where she also received her Masters and finally her PhD in 1999. The focus of her PhD research was on the hemiplegic upper limb, and she has developed new methods of testing the accuracy of observational kinematic assessment of upper limb dysfunction. She has worked as a Physiotherapy Research Coordinator at Melbourne Health since 1989.[5]

After completing her PhD, Bernhardt went on to become a senior physiotherapist at the Austin and Royal Melbourne Hospitals from 1999–2008. She has worked for over 20 years with stroke survivors and their families as a therapist and patient advocate.[6]

Work

Bernhardt was a non-executive director for the National Stroke Foundation from 2006 to 2014 and became Principal investigator of the AVERT trial in 2004. While the AVERT trial was completed in 2016, it has been extended as AVERT-DOSE (Determining Optimal early rehabilitation after Stroke)[7]

At AVERT, Bernhardt led a team of over 1000 clinicians and researchers. The trial aimed to identify if receiving very early mobilisation (VEM) within 24 hours of stroke is beneficial for stroke recovery, and if so, how much and frequently is best.[8]

AVERT is the largest acute stroke rehabilitation trial in the world. Over 2000 stroke patients were recruited from 56 acute stroke units in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, and Singapore from 2006–2014.[9]

The studies in AVERT focused on understanding how early exercise-based interventions after stroke may alter bone, muscle and brain.[10] The results of the AVERT trial were presented at the European Stroke Organisation Conference in Glasgow, April, 2015.

While AVERT was completed in 2016, Bernhardt continues to lead the extension of the trial, AVERT-DOSE. This trial tests eight different mobility training regimens to see what dose of mobility training is best early after stroke. AVERT-DOSE is recruiting over 2500 patients in six countries: Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, and India.[11]

Bernhardt is also Head of Stroke Division at the Florey Institute, and has been on the Steering Committee of the Australian Stroke Research Network since 2012. Since January 2014, she has also been Co-Chair for Australian Stroke Trials Network and was on the board of the World Stroke Organisation in July 2014.

Bernhardt has published over 116 papers and nearly 200 abstracts, as well as book chapters, editorials and opinion pieces, most of these in the field of stroke rehabilitation.

Personal

Bernhardt lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and teenage son.[12]

Awards and honours

See also

References
  1. "Our People". Stroke Recovery Research CRE. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  2. "Our Research". Stroke Recovery Research CRE. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  3. Bernhardt, Julie; Hayward, Kathryn; Kwakkel, Gert; Ward, Nick; Wolf, Steven; Borschmann, Karen; Krakauer, John; Boyd, Lara; Carmichael, S. Thomas; Corbett, Dale; Cramer, Steven (September 21, 2017). "Agreed Definitions and a Shared Vision for New Standards in Stroke Recovery Research: The Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable Taskforce". Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair. 31 (9): 793–799. doi:10.1177/1545968317732668. PMID 28934920.
  4. Borschmann, Karen. "Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable – June 2018 update". Stroke Recovery Research CRE. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  5. "Neurosciences Centre of Research Excellence: Staff". Neurosciences Centre of Research Excellence. Neurosciences Centre of Research Excellence. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  6. "No Chicks No Excuses: Expert women for every event: Julie Bernhardt". No Chicks No Excuses. Archived from the original on 28 February 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  7. "AVERT-DOSE (Determining Optimal early rehabilitation after StrokE): A multi-arm covariate-adjusted, response-adaptive randomised controlled trial". Research Data Australia. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  8. Bernhardt, Julie; Churilov, Leonid; Ellery, Fiona; Collier, Janice; Chamberlain, Jan; Langhorne, Peter; Lindley, Richard; Moodie, Marj; Dewey, Helen; Thrift, Amanda; Donnan, Geoff (June 7, 2016). "Prespecified dose-response analysis for A Very Early Rehabilitation Trial (AVERT)". Neurology. 23 (86): 2138–2145. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000002459. PMC 4898313. PMID 26888985.
  9. "A Very Early Rehabilitation Trial (AVERT) - Database Projects". Florey. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  10. "Julie Bernhardt". LinkedIn. LinkedIn. Archived from the original on 6 November 2014. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  11. "AVERT-DOSE (Determining Optimal early rehabilitation after StrokE): A multi-arm covariate-adjusted, response-adaptive randomised controlled trial". Research Data Australia. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  12. "Life as a scientist can mean directly helping those who suffer". Women's Agenda. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  13. "Bernhardt, Julie's Fellowship Profile". Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  14. "100 Women of Influence 2016". afr.com. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  15. "Awards supported by the Austin Medical Research Foundation, AMRF, Melbourne Australia". Austin Medical Research Foundation. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  16. "American Stroke Association honors nine outstanding contributors to stroke, research". American Heart Association. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  17. "UKSF Conference 2015 - At A Glance Programme" (PDF). Stroke Association. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  18. "Winners announced: NAB Womens Agenda Leadership Awards 2015". Angela Priestley.
  19. "Australia Day 2019 Honours List". Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. Archived from the original on 27 May 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  20. "Academy elects 28 new Fellows". AAHMS - Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. 2020-10-14. Retrieved 2020-12-07.
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