Swaithes, Laura

Laura Swaithes is a Knowledge Mobilisation Research Fellow at Keele University. She completed an undergraduate degree in Physiotherapy at Coventry University in 2004 and worked at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, specialising in complex musculoskeletal rehabilitation and orthopaedic caseload management across a range of healthcare settings. In 2013 she completed the NIHR Masters in Research Methods at the University of Nottingham before embarking on a clinical academic career. She has worked on various large research projects at the Arthritis Research UK Centre for Sports, Exercise and Osteoarthritis, and the Arthritis Research UK Pain Centre. Laura completed her PhD (entitled 'From research to primary care: a knowledge mobilisation study in osteoarthritis) at the Impact Accelerator Unit at Keele University. Her work investigates the implementation of musculoskeletal innovations in Primary Care and she has presented this work nationally and internationally. In 2017 Laura was awarded the NIHR Short Placement Award for Research Collaboration to further develop her expertise in knowledge mobilisation. Laura has recently been awarded an NIHR School for Primary Care Research post-doctoral fellowship and a Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Research Foundation fellowship to continue her work on understanding and optimising the uptake of evidence for musculoskeletal care.