Interview with Eva Weidenhielm Broström, Adjunct Professor at KBH 2019
Hello and congratulations to your Professorship.
Your colleagues at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health are interested to know a little more about you and you work.
Who are you?
I am head of the Department of Highly Specialized Pediatric Orthopedics and Medicine at Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital (ALB) and head of the Division of Pediatric Neurology at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health (KBH). I am a physiotherapist and my heart is with in pediatric musculoskeletal and neurology disorders. I have always worked within pediatrics, both clinically and within research. My professional life as a physiotherapist began at Danderyd’s Pediatric Clinic in 1993. I defended my thesis at KBH, KI, in 2004. In parallel with my clinical duties, I have continued with research and I am now adjunct professor. I grew up in the Stockholm archipelago and lived there all year round when I was young. Nowadays I live in central Stockholm.
Can you describe your research?
My research is on children and adults with problems from the locomotor and support organs. Focus has always been on children with rheumatologic, neurologic or orthopedic problems. I have had the privilege of building a computerized, three-dimensional, motion analysis laboratory, Motion Laboratory (MotorikLab), at ALB together with my research group. The Motion Laboratory enables us to quantify 3D movements and forces with high precision and resolution. The research results and method development from my research group have been transferred into clinical practice. Gait analysis and functional tests are now used in the clinical assessment when choosing treatment method and to evaluate medical, orthopedic and physiotherapeutic interventions. At present, my and the research group’s research focus is on using and developing tools to measure physical activity, health related quality of life, treatment outcome (patient reported measures, PROM) as well as motion analyzes for children and adults. We develop questionnaires for patient experience (PREM) based on the children’s and adolescents’ participation in and experience from the care system. We collaborate with other research groups, nationally as well as internationally, in our various studies.
Within what subject is your Professorship and what do you hope to achieve as a Professor at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health?
My focus is to lead and conduct clinical research that promotes children’s and adolescent’s motion and health related quality of life. My research group has a unique competence and is bearer of knowledge within pediatric research and education regarding intervention studies, instrument development and long-term follow-ups to increase knowledge of patients’ diagnosis-specific problems. Digitalization and the use of Internet-based assessment instruments and interventions (apps) are now being introduced to an increasing extent in health care. We need to find out what this means for children and adolescents from an ethical and social perspective.
The subject of my Professorship is physiotherapy.
Do you have any hidden talents / leisure interests?
Hiking, golf and photography. What gives me energy and inspiration is the ocean’s dimensions.
Thank you very much for your answers and welcome as an Adjunct Professor at KBH.