Elisabeth Rydwik

Elisabeth Rydwik

Senior Lecturer/Physcial Therapist | Docent
Telephone: +46852488818
Visiting address: Alfred Nobels allé 23, B3,, 14183 Huddinge
Postal address: H1 Neurobiologi, vårdvetenskap och samhälle, H1 Fysioterapi Rydwik, 171 77 Stockholm

About me

  • I have combined position as senior lecturer at the Division of physiotherapy and the Karolinska University Hospital where I'm the Director of Research
    and Development for Women's Health and Allied Health Professionals Theme. I also have a position as a scientific leader at the Research and Development unit for the care of older people, FOU nu, in Stockholm County Council. These positions enables me to combine research, implementation and education. I graduated as a physiotherapist in 1991. In 1999, I received my bachelor degree and in 2007 my doctoral degree at Karolinska Institutet. I became a docent in March 2014.

Research

  • My focus is on physical activity and exercise and the effects of those in vulnerable older people in different settings and contexts; community-dwelling vulnerable older people, rehabilitation in geriatric clinics as well as institutions. My research has thus also focused on evaluating outcome measures in relation to muscle strength and overall physical function. I run a research projects within the area of preoperative exercise with a focus on older people with abdominal cancer and a development and evaluation of an e-health tool to support preoperative exercise. I am also the PI for a project within the area of health care utilization and risk factors for re-admisson among patients discharged from geriatric in-hospital care and another project where we evaluate home rehabilitation with realist evaluation design. I'm a research group leader for the group Rehabilitation, collaboration and ageing. My combined position give me excellent possibilities to conduct clinically relevant research and increase the possibility of successful implementation.

Teaching

  • I teach regularly on the basic- advanced- and doctoral education level and I supervise master students on a regular basis. I have been main supervisor for one PhD-student and co-supervisor for one. At present, I'm the main supervisor for three PhD-student and co-supervisor for three as well
    as main supervisor for two postdocs.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • PoPEx: Evaluation of a digital tool for preoperative exercise before abdominal cancer surgery and exploring prerequisites for implementation
    Karolinska Institutet, SFO-V
    9 September 2023 - 31 August 2025
  • CANOPTIPHYS/mHealth: OPTimizing preoperative PHYSical function in older persons undergoing abdominal C ANcer surgery
    Karolinska Institutet, Research school in health science
    1 September 2023 - 31 August 2024
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 July 2023 - 30 June 2029
    Research problem and specific questions The overall aim is to develop models that support older adults´ participation in everyday activities that engage and lead to well-being where welfare technology is used to reduce the need for primary- and homecare.The needs of older adults at risk/ with frailty and significant others participating in interventions using digital technologies and what is needed for successful implementation will be studied together with the older adults, significant others, informal carer and staff.Research questions Can a prevention program using technology supporting engaging activities in everyday life reduce risk or maintain/delay the level of frailty in older adults? (project A)How can a prevention program that use technology support “Good quality, local health care “for frail older adults become a self-evident and integrated way of working as an addition to physical care within primary healthcare? (project A)Can a specialized homecare service (Reablement) using technology support older adults’ participation and engagement in everyday life while living at home? (project B)What are the needs of informal carer who provide support to older adults living with frailty at home? (project A-D)What are the systemic factors for and how can co-creation methods contribute to successful implementation of an intervention using technology directed towards older adults to improve primary care and homecare services? (project A-E)                                                                                                                                                                Data and method The interdisciplinary program is based on tested interventions using digital technology with positive effects in the context of older adult’s home. Five projects with qualitative and quantitative methods are planned. A digital platform will be used to compare data. With analyses from projects A-D, a model describing effects of implementation that can change and implement new interventions and working approaches using will be developed (project E).Relevance and utilisation In Europe, more than 1/3 of older adults &lt
    75 years live with frailty that causes functional limitations with an impact on well-being of many older adults thats lead to high costs for tax-funded care.The home is an important arena and with an increase of older adults new working models are needed. The result will generate knowledge about how to use digital solutions for preventive efforts, more efficient primary- and homecare that enable participation in everyday life of older adults and support for relatives and staff.Plan for project realisation A close collaboration between staff in Region Stockholm/Uppsala, City of Stockholm, Huddinge municipality and researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Royal Institute of Technology and Uppsala University that will work closely to a reference group of older adults, significant others, and stakeholders.
  • CANOPTIPHYS/mHealth - OPTImizing PHYSical function before CANcer surgery: development and evaluation of mHealth support for older people
    Karolinska Institutet, SFO-V
    1 December 2021 - 31 December 2023
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2021 - 30 November 2024
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 November 2021 - 31 October 2025
    Home rehabilitation for older people is widely implemented, but research on the content and the effectiveness of the rehabilitation interventions used in practice are scarce and we lack of knowledge of how home-rehabilitation units collaborate with social- and health care services. The aim is to evaluate the state of home rehabilitation in relation to scientific evidence and the effectiveness on older persons’ well-being, participation and ability in daily activities as well as the older persons satisfaction with the interventions, the collaboration between social service- and health care providers, and level of service utilization. The design is based on the realist evaluation method, where a defined program theory is used as a base for the evaluation. The main characteristic is to identify context, mechanism and outcomes of the target process. The project will be conducted in Jönköping, Luleå and Stockholm which reflects different parts of the country in relation to size and care organisations. During phase 1, a program theory is established through systematic searches of scientific and grey literature
    extracting data, analyzes and synthesizing will be conducted and discussed during four workshops. During phase 2, the context and mechanisms of impact is explored at home-rehabilitation units at the three sites, through observations of interaction between staff and patients, patient record auditing, and focus groups and interviews. During phase 3, the effectiveness of home rehabilitation will be evaluated by patient record auditing, register data, questionnaires and interviews and will be analyzed in relation to the described program theory. An overarching analysis of what, for whom and under which circumstances that home rehabilitation leads to change will be conducted with data from all three phases using mixed methods. The results of identified mechanisms and relevant context factors will be related to the outcomes of effectiveness to identify outcome patterns.
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 November 2021 - 31 October 2025
    Older adults make up approximately 20% of the Swedish population. The ongoing demographic development, with an ageing population and a continuously larger proportion of older adults, leads to continuously increasing demand for appropriate and efficient geriatric care. One particularly critical moment in the continuum of care for older adults is the transition between different responsible authorities, between regional and municipal care.The project consists of four phases and the aims are (I) to map and assess the situation in terms of health, care activities and resource use after discharge, (II) analyse associations with care-transition outcomes, (III) based on phase I-II, generate viable ideas for addressing and improving the situation, and (IV) implement new and improved ways of working as well as perform a post-implementation evaluation of effects (IV). The design of the study is closed cohorts based on registry data (phases I-II) together with an experience-based co-design (phase III), implementation and evaluation (phase IV).The data set leveraged in phases I-II consists of patient records from geriatric care, health care utilization data for six months after discharge extracted from the Stockholm Regional Healthcare Data Warehouse, socioeconomic data from Statistics Sweden, and data from the National Board of Health and Welfare on social services and death cause. In phase III, an experience-based co-design approach will be leveraged to develop a new model for the coordination of care, where the synthesised knowledge from phases I-II will be used as a base. In phase IV, the co-designed new model of coordination of care will be implemented. To be able to draw adequate conclusion from the outcome analyses, data on the process of implementation will be collected, and frequency of readmission will be the primary outcome measure to evaluate the effect of new ways of working. Costs of readmission will be computed before and after implementation.
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 November 2021 - 31 October 2024
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2021 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council for Environment Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning
    1 December 2020 - 30 November 2021
  • CANOPTIPHYS: OPTImizing PHYSical function before surgery: effects on complications and quality of life after gastrointestinal CANcer surgey in older people at risk – a randomized controlled trial
    Cancer Research Foundation
    1 January 2020 - 31 December 2024

Employments

  • Senior Lecturer/Physcial Therapist, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, 2018-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2014
  • Doctor Of Philosophy, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, 2007
  • Bachelor Of Medical Science, Karolinska Institutet, 2001

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