Dr. Olive Lennon is an accomplished healthcare professional with over two decades of clinical experience as a physiotherapist specialising in neurorehabilitation. Prior to joining University College Dublin Olive grew up in Cork, Ireland and has worked in Ireland and in the USA across both acute and community health services sectors. Throughout her clinical career, Olive has made significant contributions, establishing the first physiotherapy neurology service at St James Hospital Dublin and as a founder member of the first Health Services Executive (HSE) stroke rehabilitation team. Her academic journey began with an MSc in Health Informatics from Trinity College, followed by a PhD in UCD in 2011. She holds additional postgraduate diplomas in Research Statistics, Health Services Management, and University Teaching and Learning. Dr Lennon is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science in UCD.
Passionate about optimising function and well-being in individuals with neurological disabilities, Olive's research agenda spans conditions that include Stroke, Spinal Cord Injury and Parkinson’s disease. She leads a number of funded projects and clinical trials addressing person-centred stroke secondary prevention, responsive rehabilitative robotic-assisted gait and neuropathic pain. Dr. Lennon has contributed to the UK and Ireland Stroke Guidelines and to the American Stroke Association’s Prevention Guidelines, combining her vast clinical expertise with scientific research to improve clinical practice and implement evidence-based interventions. Her career journey reflects a commitment to bridging the gap between clinical practice and academia, exemplified by her role as a teaching and learning Research Fellow and her involvement in collaborative stroke research initiatives. Dr. Lennons multidisciplinary qualifications in physiotherapy, informatics, and statistics underscore her comprehensive approach to healthcare research and practice.
Current Research Challenges
Dr Lennon's research interests centre on helping individuals with neurological disabilities live meaningful and healthy lives. She has conducted studies investigating barriers to healthy lifestyles for people with disability and has explored the adaptation of proven preventive programmes such as cardiac rehabilitation to better meet the needs of stroke patients. She faces a multitude of challenges in her research striving to raise awareness about ongoing projects and unmet needs for people with neurological disabilities. Her work spans various facets of preventive medicine, neurological rehabilitation and promotion of interprofessional learning in clinical settings.
In her quest to understand respiratory impairments in Parkinson's patients, Olive supervises laboratory-based research that studies breathing patterns of people with Parkinson’s disease and matched healthy controls. Patients with Parkinsons are often hospitalised for respiratory issues rather than mobility problems, prompting the need to understand the specific respiratory impairments they face. Studying the breathing patterns and diaphragmatic movement can help uncover the motor impairments that may contribute to these respiratory problems and to better guide the development of effective interventions.
Moreover, Olive delves into the complexities of neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury, supervising research that first established the national pain profiles of the population and then trials non-pharmacological management strategies. Her research explores pain management programs, incorporating cognitive-behavioural principles and motor-sensory interventions to alleviate pain and pain interference.
In parallel, Olive explores the feasibility of robotic interventions for individuals with motor impairments including stroke survivors. With funding from prestigious awards, she investigates the potential of intelligent robotics to enhance mobility and walking ability, ultimately aiming to improve the quality of life for patients.
The Researcher
Dr Olive Lennon leads three projects related to rehabilitation robotics, including an EU H2020 funded programme PROGAIT, a Science Foundation Ireland funded project 3Rs examining Brain-Computer Interface technology, and a Health Research Board funded clinical trial of exoskeleton walking in spinal cord injury-induced neuropathic pain (ExSCiP). Additionally, she collaborates on Health Research Board Ireland funded initiatives including the collaborative doctoral award iPASTAR to improve stroke-care pathways and an applied partnership award CLASP for life after stroke pathway co-design. Her extensive involvement in stroke research includes chairing INSsPiRE, an international network of stroke secondary researchers, contributing to clinical guideline development for stroke and stroke prevention.
Olive draws inspiration from various sources, including her fascination with human movement, informatics and statistics. She finds joy in learning new concepts, particularly in challenging fields like machine learning/AI and one might apply these across the different neural bio-signals. Witnessing the resilience of individuals after devastating life events such as spinal cord injury or acquired brain injury, fuels her passion for research and innovation. Her multifaceted interests and sources of inspiration shape her as both a dedicated researcher, driven by a thirst for knowledge and a passion for personal growth. Olive enjoys spending time with her family, leisurely walks and travel adventures.
Future Research Aspirations
Dr Olive Lennon continues to focus on her ongoing research and integrating this into her teaching programs. She is strongly motivated to learn from and with other disciplines. Referring to one Science Foundation Ireland funded Frontiers for the Future project, she says ‘’This work is now focused on commanding a robotic walking device in real time at a brain level using brain signals. It is an enormous challenge that I might never realise in my lifetime but I have made enormous gains in having that aspiration in the first place. So I'm going to keep going.’’
When asked what motivates her in this work she adds ‘’ultimately, I wanted to improve neuro rehab and I want to improve the outcomes for people receiving neuro rehab, so I think continuing to teach the next generation the skills, and knowledge and critical reasoning that they need to make good decisions for their patients is very important, but also to push the research boundaries so that our interventions are effective and acceptable and feasible to deliver.’’
Dr. Lennon is working with colleagues across the clinical sites to bridge the gap between clinicians and academics all with one goal to ultimately improve patient care. Olive works to provide evidence-based research for the funders and service providers to start investing more in rehabilitation where she sees a critical need in Ireland today.
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