Judith Allanson

Position

CLAHRC Fellow 2019

About

Judith is a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine based in Cambridge who meets people recovering from brain injury at all stages of the recovery pathway. She has had a particular interest in Neurological rehabilitation and recovery mechanisms after traumatic brain injury ever since her laboratory based PhD on the role of cell cyle genes in nerve cell regeneration. She is based in Addenbrookes and has been the Clinical Lead for the County wide head injury service for the last 10 years and is now Chief Investigator with the Cambridge research team investigating multimodal assessments of prolonged Disorders of Consciousness. She is on the BSRM exec, chairing their Trauma rehab special interest group which has published core standards for specialised rehabilitation after trauma and has contributed to the development of rehabilitation prescriptions. She is now a member of the Guideline Development group working on updating the Royal College of Physicians Guidelines on assessment and management of people in Prolonged disorders of Consciousness. Training in Cambridge, Oxford, London, Manchester, Leeds and Stoke on Trent has given her the chance to work in both large teaching hospitals, research laboratories, busy DGHs and various residential and community specialised rehabilitation services. For the last ten years Judith has enjoyed working on the Evelyn Neurorehabilitation project in Cambridge; establishing a county wide community head injury service in Cambridgeshire and an early rehabilitation ward for trauma patients at Addenbrookes. This has offered the opportunity to link with, not only other rehabilitation and research teams, but also with voluntary sector organisations, independent providers and other statutory services to create an interagency rehabilitation liaison network throughout the county. It has also created the opportunity to meet severely injured people and their families very early after injury in neuro critical care, and to follow their progress as they recover and move to other rehabilitation services and onto residential settings. She is therefore delighted to have been given the opportunity by the CLARHC, to follow up the group of patients who have been included in the Cambridge research groups study of sensory and cognitive function in prolonged disorders of consciousness over the last 10 years.