Physical activity and exercise capacity in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD

Research group The research group consists of physiotherapists, engineers, medical doctors and computer scientists. We explore effects of different interventions, at present primarily focusing on different eHealth solutions, regarding exercise tolerance, physical activity level, health related quality of life and use of health care for people with COPD. We are also interested in implementation of evidence based strategies and the view of health care professionals’.

At the Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation there is a group of, at present, four persons. Dr Tobias Stenlund, physiotherapist, engineer and postdoc, is responsible for an ongoing multi-center, randomised controlled trial on the effects of KOLwebben in primary care. Dr Sara Lundell, physiotherapist is working on data analysis of qualitative data from a study on KOLwebben in municipality based home health care. Associate professor André Nyberg, physiotherapist played an active role in the development of KOLwebben and led a former pilot study on the eHealth tool. He is now collaborating on data collection and analysis in the project. MSc, PhD student Sarah Marklund, physiotherapist, is analysing qualitative data from the pilot study and collect data in the ongoing RCT.

In a project in which we have developed and are evaluating an eHealth system for home monitoring of lung function and symptoms in people with COPD we are collaborating with MTI-FoU at Norrlands universitetssjukhus. Professor Anders Blomberg, pulmonologist, associate professors Fredrik Öhberg and Urban Wiklund, both technical engineers, and Dr Åsa Holmner, engineer, are collaborators in this project.

At Karolinska Institutet a project aims to develop and evaluate an eHealth tool for people with COPD. The tool will improve the possibility to perform physical activity and exercise training at home in severe COPD. Karin Wadell is co-supervisor for PhD-student Pernilla Sönnerfors, physiotherapist. Dr Alexandra Halvarsson is main supervisor.

Professor Margareta Emtner, physiotherapist at Uppsala University is PI for a multi-center RCT (AMBOX) in which Umeå is one of the centres. The AMBOX study is investigating the effect of ambulatory oxygen in people with COPD and exercise-induced hypoxemia. Karin Wadell is responsible researcher in this study.