Our people

Assoc. Prof. Ian Wellwood

Associate Prof. of Physiotherapy
School of Allied Health

Areas of expertise: physiotherapy; rehabilitation; stroke; aged care; health services research; public health

Phone: 0353 365341

Email: ian.wellwood@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Ballarat Campus

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6059-9209

Ian Wellwood is a physiotherapist with over 20 years experience as a clinical academic. Ian is open to discuss opportunities for higher degree supervision, industry partnerships and collaborative research.

He has worked extensively with people with long term conditions, in particular stroke and acquired brain injury. Ian has a MPhil (University of Edinburgh, UK) and PhD (University of Glasgow, UK) in clinical neuroscience.

He is an experienced researcher and educator working in rehabilitation, health service and public health research in the UK and Europe before moving to Australia.

Professional memberships
Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA)
Registered Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA)
Member of Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (UK)

View academia profile

Select publications

Peer reviewed journals (selected)

• Beks H, King O, Clapham R, Alston L, Glenister K, McKinstry C, Quilliam C, Wellwood I, Williams C, Wong Shee A. Community Health Programs Delivered Through Information and Communications Technology in High-Income Countries: Scoping Review J Med Internet Res 2022;24(3):e26515 doi: 10.2196/26515 PMID: 35262498
• Hartley P, Romero-Ortuno R, Wellwood I, Deaton C. Changes in muscle strength and physical function in older patients during and after hospitalisation: a prospective repeated-measures cohort study. Age Ageing. 2021 Jan 8;50(1):153-160. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afaa103. PMID: 32902637
• Early F, Wilson PM, Deaton C, Wellwood I, Haque HW, Fox SE, Yousaf A, Meysner OD, Ward JR, Singh SJ, Fuld JP. Pulmonary rehabilitation referral and uptake from primary care for people living with COPD: a mixed-methods study. ERJ Open Res. 2020 Feb 17;6(1):00219-2019. doi: 10.1183/23120541.00219-2019. eCollection 2020 Jan. PMID: 32083112
• Sowden E, Hossain M, Chew-Graham C, Blakeman T, Tierney S, Wellwood I, Rosa F, Deaton C. Understanding the management of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: a qualitative multiperspective study. Br J Gen Pract. 2020 Nov 26;70(701):e880-e889. doi: 10.3399/bjgp20X713477. Print 2020 Dec. PMID: 33139334
• Walter FM, Thompson MJ, Wellwood I, Abel GA, Hamilton W, Johnson M, Lyratzopoulos G, Messenger MP, Neal RD, Rubin G, Singh H, Spencer A, Sutton S, Vedsted P, Emery JD. Evaluating diagnostic strategies for early detection of cancer: the CanTest framework. BMC Cancer. 2019 Jun 14;19(1):586. doi: 10.1186/s12885-019-5746-6. PMID: 31200676
• Rankin G, Summers R, Cowan K, Barker K, Button K, Carroll SP, Fashanu B, Moran F, O'Neill B, Ten Hove R, Waterfield J, Westwater-Wood S, Wellwood I; James Lind Alliance (JLA) Physiotherapy Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) Steering Group. Identifying Priorities for Physiotherapy Research in the UK: the James Lind Alliance Physiotherapy Priority Setting Partnership. Physiotherapy. 2020 Jun;107:161-168. doi: 10.1016/j.physio.2019.07.006. Epub 2019 Jul 29. PMID: 32026816
• Early F, Wellwood I, Kuhn I, Deaton C, Fuld J. Interventions to increase referral and uptake to pulmonary rehabilitation in people with COPD: a systematic review. International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease 2018, 13:3571-3586
• Neumann, K., Grittner, U., Piper, S. K., Rex, A., Florez-Vargas, O., Karystianis, G., Schneider, A., Wellwood, I., Siegerink, B., Ioannidis, J. P., Kimmelman, J., … Dirnagl, U. (2017). Increasing efficiency of preclinical research by group sequential designs. PLoS Biology, 15(3), e2001307. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2001307
• Hotter, B., Padberg I., Liebenau A., Knispel P., Heel S., Steube D., Wissel J., Wellwood I. , and Meisel A.. Identifying Unmet Needs in Long-Term Stroke Care Using in-Depth Assessment and the Post-Stroke Checklist - The Managing Aftercare for Stroke (MAS-I) Study. European Stroke Journal 3, no. 3 (September 2018): 237-45. doi:10.1177/2396987318771174.
• Pindus DM, Mullis R, Lim L, Wellwood I, Rundell AV, Abd Aziz NA, et al. (2018) Stroke survivors' and informal caregivers' experiences of primary care and community healthcare services - A systematic review and meta-ethnography. PLoS ONE 13(2): e0192533.
• Nolte CH, Erdur H, Grittner U, Schneider A, Piper SK, Scheitz JF, Wellwood I, Bath PM, Diener HC, Lees KR, Endres M; VISTA collaborators. Impact of heart rate on admission on mortality and morbidity in acute ischaemic stroke patients - results from VISTA. Eur J Neurol. 2016 Dec;23(12):1750-1756. doi: 10.1111/ene.13115.
• Fleming MK, Sorinola IO, Roberts-Lewis SF, Wolfe CD, Wellwood I, Newham DJ. The effect of combined somatosensory stimulation and task-specific training on upper limb function in chronic stroke: a double-blind randomized controlled trial. Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2015 Feb;29(2):143-52. doi: 10.1177/1545968314533613
• Otal B, Olma MC, Flöel A, Wellwood I. Inhibitory non-invasive brain stimulation to homologous language regions as an adjunct to speech and language therapy in post-stroke aphasia: a meta-analysis. Front Hum Neurosci. 2015 Apr 28;9:236. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00236. eCollection 2015
• Ayis S, Wellwood I, Rudd AG, McKevitt C, Parkin D, Wolfe CDA. Variations in Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and survival 1 year after stroke: five European population-based registers. BMJ Open 2015;5:e007101 doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007101

Conference papers

• Ian has presented poster and platform presentations at a variety of conferences including, European Stroke Congress, Stroke UK, Physiotherapy UK, World Congress for Physiotherapy.

Projects

• Ian has been applicant and co-applicant on several competitive grants at project and institutional level in the UK (National Institute for Health Research and Dunhill Trust) and Germany (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)). Full details and financial values available.

Accolades and Awards

• 2010 - Hermann Oppenheim Scholarship awarded by the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Germany

Appointments and Affiliations

• 2019 - present Associate Professor, Physiotherapy, ACU, Ballarat
• 2014 - 2019 Senior Research Associate, Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge, UK
• 2011 - 2014 Research Group Leader, Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research (CEHRiS) Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Germany
• 2007 - 2011 Lecturer in Public Health and Health Services Research, Biomedical Research Centre, King's College London, UK

International journal review panels

• 2017 - Member International Advisory Board on Physiotherapy journal (UK)

Grant agency review panels

• 2011 - 2017 Scientific Advisory Board of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy's (CSP) Physiotherapy Research Fund. Overseeing, reviewing and awarding UK's national physiotherapy research funding programme
• 2015 - 2017Action Medical Research (UK), (invited member for co-funded projects)
• 2015 - 2018 Member Management Board of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society's (UK) National Register

Public engagement activities

• Engaged with the James Lind Alliance Physiotherapy Priority Setting Partnership - setting national priorities for physiotherapy research in the UK, and more recently with local Stroke Support Group in Ballarat.