INSPIRE'S Researchers Series
Researcher Spotlight
Welcome back from the summer hiatus! As INSPIRE is officially one year old, we are excited to continue highlighting the consortium members dedicated to the INSPIRE project. We are pleased to open up the monthly spotlight to all researchers making INSPIRE a reality!
We are delighted to spotlight Dr. GURO STENE from Universitet i Bergen, Norway who brings extensive research experience and practical knowledge to the INSPIRE project.
Guro Stene
Tell us a bit about yourself Guro!
I trained as a physiotherapist in Manchester and have clinical experience mostly from hospital-based settings focusing on using physical activity and exercise as part of treatment and rehabilitation services for cancer patients, including in palliative care. In 2014, I did an International PhD in Palliative Care at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). I was then part of an EU project, where my work was about testing new methods to assess and prevent functional decline in patients with advanced cancer. I have been involved in several cancer rehabilitation studies, including the MENAC studies, where we tested the feasibility and effectiveness of a multimodal rehabilitation program to attenuate cancer cachexia. I am currently an Associate Professor at NTNU and the University of Bergen (UiB), which involves both teaching and research within physical activity and exercise, rehabilitation, cancer, and palliative care. This gives me a great opportunity to pass on knowledge from my clinical work and research to students who are training to become health professionals.
I am part of the INSPIRE research team at the Centre for Crisis Psychology (UiB), led by Professor Line Oldervoll. We are collaborating with clinicians from the Cancer Clinic at St Olav’s Hospital in Trondheim to recruit patients for the INSPIRE trial and are also responsible for two work packages, WP1 and WP7. In WP1, we have already conducted a comparative health service analysis, which means we have studied official documents, conducted interviews with stakeholders and a survey of clinical practice to know more about how rehabilitation is integrated in cancer and palliative care services across Europe at present.
I believe that the INSPIRE project is perfectly timed and is an important contribution to the way we think about palliative rehabilitation in the years to come. I hope INSPIRE will change practice towards what matters most to the patients and will provide the best possible care for patients who live with advanced cancer. It is a great pleasure to be able to contribute and share expertise within the EU-consortium and, through this, strengthen our joint efforts to support patients to function and live their lives fully for as long as possible.
Timely
Hopeful
Innovative
