Dr Meghan Ambrens

RESEARCHER PROFILE

Post-doctoral fellow

0403 489 075

m.ambrens@neura.edu.au

Falls prevention Falls and balance

Meghan’s PhD evaluated technology-delivered fall prevention programs for community-dwelling older people. Her research to date has explored the effectiveness, acceptability and economic evaluation of technology-delivered programs. Meghan has an interest in qualitative research, health policy, preventive health, and healthy ageing. The translation of research to policy and practice is an area Meghan is interested in pursuing in her post-doctoral career.

RESEARCH TEAM

DR MEI LING (MAE) LIM Postdoctoral Fellow : 02 9348 1074
: m.lim@neura.edu.au

AMY PERRAM Research Assistant : 02 9399 1123
: a.perram@neura.edu.au

MICHELLE NGO Research Assistant : (02) 9399 1118
: m.ngo@neura.edu.au

DR MORAG TAYLOR Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow : 02 9399 1885
: m.taylor@neura.edu.au

DR PAULO PELICIONI Postdoctoral Fellow : (02) 9399 1024
: p.pelicioni@neura.edu.au

SARAH LUDOWICI Research Assistant : 9399 1422
: s.ludowici@neura.edu.au

ALICIA BROWN Research Assistant : 9399 1036
: a.flynn@neura.edu.au

DR KIM VAN SCHOOTEN Senior Postdoctoral Fellow : +61 2 9399 1087
: k.vanschooten@neura.edu.au

GARTH MCINERNEY Research Assistant : 9399 1008
: g.mcinerney@neura.edu.au

JESSICA CHOW Research Assistant : 9399 1057
: j.chow@neura.edu.au

CARLY CHAPLIN Research Assistant : c.chaplin@neura.edu.au

LILLIAN MILES Research Assistant

SUPERVISORS

DR DAINA STURNIEKS Senior Lecturer, School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Conjoint Senior Research Scientist, NeuRA

PROFESSOR KIM DELBAERE Principal Research Scientist Conjoint Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW Research Fellow – Career Development Fellowship (Level 2), NHMRC

Further information about Dr Meghan Ambrens

RELATED INFORMATION

Meghan is involved in a number of research studies within the Falls, Balance and Injury Research Centre. These studies include:

StandingTall

A number of ongoing research projects associated with the successful StandingTall study. StandingTall is a novel unsupervised, home-based balance exercise program delivered through a tablet computer to prevent falls in older people.

StandingTall Implementation study

This study seeks to explore the effectiveness of implementing StandingTall, including establishing integrated pathways for the successful delivery of StandingTall to older people and scope further broad scale implementation and models for incorporating StandingTall into existing health services and routine care.

StandingTall Plus, a multi-factorial program to prevent falls in older people. This study added a cutting-edge brain training program to the original StandingTall program to to help people think faster on their feet during daily activities.

Implementation of wearable technology into clinical care. This study comprises a Delphi and implementation pilot and seeks to (1) understand how we can apply assistive technology to advance clinical are for older people and (2) explore the impact of implementation of wearable technology for fall risk and mobility assessment on clinical care for older people.

https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/1/e031200

PUBLICATIONS

Enhancing Resilience in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Rapid Review of the Evidence and Implications for Public Health Practitioners.

Madsen W, Ambrens M, Ohl M
Front Public Health. 2019 ;7():14. doi: 30792974. Epub 2018 Feb.

Exploring Older Adults' Experiences of a Home-Based, Technology-Driven Balance Training Exercise Program Designed to Reduce Fall Risk: A Qualitative Research Study Within a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Ambrens M, Stanners M, Valenzuela T, Razee H, Chow J, van Schooten KS, Close JCT, Clemson L, Zijlstra GAR, Lord SR, Tiedemann A, Alley SJ, Vandelanotte C, Delbaere K
J Geriatr Phys Ther. 2021 Jul;():. doi: 34292258. Epub 2021 Jul.

This study found digital technologies are an effective and enjoyable method for delivering a fall prevention program. This study highlights that older adults are interested in learning how to engage successfully with novel technologies.