Associate Professor Barbara Singer

Associate Professor Barbara Singer is a physiotherapist with 30 years of clinical experience in a variety of neurological settings including acute and rehabilitation neurology and neurosurgery services. She also has considerable experience teaching undergraduate and post graduate physiotherapy students in university and clinical environments.

Following completion of her doctoral studies, she joined the academic staff at the Centre for Musculoskeletal Studies, School of Surgery at UWA, where she co-ordinates postgraduate programmes for physiotherapists with a special interest in the management of adults with neurological disorders. In addition Assoc Prof Singer provides consultancy and support, including some teaching input, to the neurology stream of the undergraduate physiotherapy programme at University of Notre Dame Australia.

She has been Principal Investigator on two NRP funded RCT's examining the efficacy of cyclic stretching to reduce calf muscle stiffness after stroke, and the role of neuromuscular electrical stimulation ± bimanual movement in assisting recovery of motor function, left neglect and anosognosia after stroke.

She is a titled member [Neurological Physiotherapist] of the Australian Physiotherapy Association [APA] and currently holds a number of leadership roles within the physiotherapy profession including chairing the National Advisory Council of the APA.

She was an invited editor of a special issue of Disability and Rehabilitation focussing on the use of botulinum toxin injection to achieve balanced muscle function, which was published in 2007 and on a series of consensus statements on the use of botulinum toxin in a range of conditions including hypertonia.

She is on the Editorial Boards of Disability & Rehabilitation and The NZ Journal of Physiotherapy.

Current NRP (Chief) Co-investigators:
Prof Kevin Singer, Dr Andrea Loftus, Prof Geoff Hammond, UWA
Prof John Dunne, UWA & Royal Perth Hospital
Mr Ian Cooper, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital