Patrick Manser

In my doctorate project, I - together with all collaborators - iteratively co-designed and developed a new intervention approach and finally evaluated the effectiveness of the resulting 'Brain-IT' training concept - a newly developed training concept combining exergame-based motor-cognitive training and heart rate variability guided resonance breathing for the secondary prevention of mild neurocognitive disorders. In May 2024, I joined Erika Franzén's research group as a postdoctoral researcher, mainly working on the Park-MOVE project, where we are striving to bring together all the groups' preparatory research and expertise with my expertise, the scientific evidence and the expectations and needs of primary (patients) and secondary (physiotherapists, occupational therapists, health professionals) end-users to create an innovative training approach that is well accepted and (hopefully) effective. We specifically focus on developing a personalized and individually adapted training concept by aiming to use data from neuroimaging (at rest and during complex walking), physical and neurocognitive assessments, mobility monitoring and/or evaluations on psychosocial functioning to inform decision making on the personalization of the type, content, and characteristics of the training and individually tailor and progress the training according to real-time physiological and performance data.

My research focuses on the iterative co-design, development, and evaluation of innovative, personalized, and individually-adapted technology-based intervention approaches for neurodegenerative and mental disorders, in particular exergame-based motor-cognitive training combined with biofeedback breathing exercises. 

I put a strong emphasis on the involvement of primary (older adults with neurodegenerative or mental disorders) and secondary end users (physiotherapists, occupational therapists, healthcare professionals), other researchers, as well as experts from the exergaming industry to make the most out of the development and implementation of novel training concepts for the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. I am particularly interested in combining the advantages of qualitative and quantitative research and in combining a wide range of assessment techniques, including domain-specific neuropsychological assessments, various clinical protocols of (instrumented) physical activity, gait and mobility analysis (with accelerometry), electroencephalography, and (functional) magnetic resonance imaging.

My medium-term goals are to investigate dose-response relationships between intervention characteristics and their effectiveness, to further improve the personalization of technology-supported training approaches, and to investigate their mechanism of action across different etiologies or subtypes of neurodegenerative and mental disorders.

So far, I have completed the Teaching Certificate in Health Sciences and Technology and worked as a lecturer at the OST - Eastern Swiss University of Applied Sciences in the lecture series "Human Movement Analysis" and "Evidence-based Intervention Planning" for students of the Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy. In this context, I contributed to the development of the new lecture series in "Human Movement Analysis", which focuses on teaching and training physiotherapy students in the application of conventional and instrumented clinical gait and mobility analysis protocols.