Q & A with Professor Vicki Goodwin

Posted by ma403

19 December 2023

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and research and/or career to this point?

I am a clinical academic physiotherapist specialising in the rehabilitation of older people. I’ve been based in Exeter since I was a PhD student and now, I’m Professor of Ageing and Rehabilitation. In 2017 I was made an MBE in the New Year Honours for services to physiotherapy.

I’m married to Ian, an Aussie physio, and have two dogs – Monty and Treacle who regularly join me in Teams meetings.

What are you aiming to do through your fellowship/new post, or what is your current research focus?

My research focuses on the development and evaluation of interventions that will improve outcomes for older people in particular, those living with frailty and those at risk of falls and fractures. I love engaging with older people and we have a fabulous group of diverse older people and family members from around the UK as part of our DREAM study.

At the moment, we’re working on a project implementing a community-based, evidence-based exercise programme to reduce falls and so far, we have had a massive uptake across Devon and are looking to understand more about fidelity and what helps spread and adoption. We are hoping to get additional funds to take this further afield.

What are you looking forward to most in starting your fellowship/new post, or the next year of your research?

We are currently writing papers for several projects that are underway or have recently finished so it will be good to see them published. I also hope that some of the raft of funding application we have submitted in the past few months all come to fruition. Although, I’m not sure how I’ll manage if all of them are funded!

Tell us something about yourself that may be less well known.

My love of shoes is commonly known. But people may not know that in a previous life I studied to be an electrical and electronic engineer. It wasn’t for me though