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Effective 1 March 2021, Vivian Weerdesteyn has been appointed professor of Motor Control and Rehabilitation at Radboud university medical center/Radboud University. Her research focuses on finding out the mechanisms that lead to mobility problems. This knowledge is translated into innovative diagnostics and treatment.
Keeping moving is good for your health, but for many people with physical limitations this is not self-evident. With her research, movement scientist Vivian Weerdesteyn tries to keep people mobile safely and independently, despite illness or aging. Her focus is on stroke, Parkinson's disease and rare inherited movement disorders. In her work and research, she focuses on both second-line care and on making successful concepts applicable within first-line care and the home.
The work of her research group is distinguished by its strong translational character. In her research she tries to unravel the pathophysiological mechanisms that lie at the basis of a disturbed balance in people with neurological disorders. She wants to use this knowledge for innovations in diagnostics and the development and evaluation of new interventions to improve problems caused by these disorders and prevent falls. This knowledge is disseminated through (inter)national training of professionals. In 2017 she received a Vidi grant to study the neurological mechanisms that compensate in the case of defective balance and gait control.
Program about falling
Vivian Weedesteyn (1975, 's-Hertogenbosch) studied Physiotherapy and Biomedical Sciences. Her dissertation 'From the mechanisms of obstacle avoidance towards the prevention of falls' describes the development and evaluation of the Vallen Verleden Tijd program. This proven effective fall prevention program has received the highest recognition from the RIVM Centre for Healthy Living and has been implemented nationally. Since 2005 she has been working at the Department of Rehabilitation of Radboud university medical center, where she has been in charge of the movement laboratories since 2008. In addition, she is affiliated with the Sint-Maartenskliniek as a senior researcher.
