The Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care is proud to present the latest event in our Inaugural Lecture Series.

The event is a celebration of our new professors, Monica Busse-Morris and Stephen Bremner, who will present an overview of their contribution to their fields.

This event is free and open to members of the public, please register via Ticket Tailor.

Doors for this event will open at 17:45 (BST), with the lectures to commence at 18:00. A drinks reception will be held at 19:10, immediately after the lecture.

The active ingredient: understanding what works in rehabilitation for long term conditions by Professor Monica Busse-Morris

Professor Monica Busse-Morris is a Professor of Applied Health and Care Research within the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care at King's College London. She has a background in physiotherapy and human movement sciences. Her research focuses on the interplay between physical, behavioural, and mental health factors, with particular emphasis on the promotion of lifelong health and wellbeing. Central to her work is understanding the 'active ingredients' that drive meaningful change in rehabilitation interventions and the factors that impact on function, mobility and participation in daily living.

Her early work focussed on the gap between 'can do' and 'do do'—between what patients can achieve in clinical settings and what they actually do day-to-day and week-to-week. She went on to validate outcome measures, explore the use of wearable technologies and apply the concepts of intervention mapping to inform development and evaluation of rehabilitation interventions for people with Huntington’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, Long Covid and most recently Osteoarthritis and multi-morbidity.

Her research developing and evaluating physiotherapy and exercise interventions in Huntington's Disease informed the global evidence-based international physiotherapy clinical guidelines for Huntington's Disease, published in 2020. More recently, in the LISTEN trial—the first personalised self-management intervention for Long COVID tested at scale across England and Wales—she has been researching the relational support that enables optimal rehabilitation outcomes.

In this lecture, Monica will explore how a systematic approach to the development and evaluation of complex interventions is critical to advancing the field. She will explain how we can move beyond simply asking whether an intervention works to understanding the mechanisms through which “active” rehabilitation ingredients create change. She will discuss the implications for research and clinical practice particularly in ensuring equitable access to effective interventions for all who need them.

Fishing, dredging and veering off-course: how statisticians ensure you’re waving, not drowning by Professor Stephen Bremner

Professor Stephen Bremner is Professor of Statistics & Epidemiology in the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care at King’s College London. His research centres on the design and analysis of clinical trials and of epidemiological studies using routine health records and other observational data.

His early work ranged from time-series analyses of the short-term health effects of air pollution, to studies of early-life risk factors for childhood hay fever using large general practice databases. He has also acted as trial statistician on a wide range of pragmatic trials, often cluster-randomised, evaluating interventions in real-world settings. A major current focus of his research is the rigorous design, analysis and reporting of pilot and feasibility studies, which aim to maximise the chances of success for future definitive research.

In this lecture, Stephen will discuss how statistical science has underpinned medical and healthcare research for over a century. From shaping study design to analysing data and interpreting results, statisticians help researchers avoid common pitfalls and draw robust conclusions. As the volume of available health data and analytical tools continues to grow, so too do research opportunities—but only if studies are carefully planned. Using examples from clinical trials and observational research, Stephen will illustrate the importance of sticking to the plan, avoiding data dredging, and ensuring safe passage from research question to meaningful conclusion.