April 12th, 2024

With generous support from Barts Guild, writes Anthony Assadourian, the Prehabilitation Team at Barts Health Trust had the opportunity to attend the Inaugural Clinical Exercise Physiology UK Conference in Manchester, with one of their Exercise Physiologists invited as a speaker to discuss their pioneering cancer prehabilitation service.

This service utilises a novel workforce of specialist Exercise Physiologists and Physiotherapists to help prepare high-risk patients for life-saving cancer surgeries. The Prehabilitation Service was initially set up in September 2022 as a one -year pilot project and has since gone on to be fully substantiated, given the excellent results they were having with their patients. The team is now in the process of expanding to include more disciplines, including Occupational Therapy and Dietetics, to further improve the care they can provide to patients. The team currently provides face-to-face exercise interventions for numerous cancer types including lung, colorectal, gynaecological, bladder, hepato-pancreato-biliary, head and neck and breast cancers. They are also expanding to include cardiac surgeries, with potential for further expansion in the future.

During their conference presentation, the Team discussed how they design and deliver individualised exercise training interventions aimed at increasing patients’ pre-operative strength and fitness to lower the potential risks of surgery and improve recovery outcomes. They went into depth about the exercise component of their intervention which includes cardiovascular and muscular strength training aimed at lowering anaesthetic risk, reducing the risk of post-operative complications, and speeding up the return to activities of daily living. They also covered how they help provide psychological support, nutritional optimisation, and behavioural change education.

The conference was well attended by Clinical Exercise Physiologists working in the NHS, private practice, in research and higher education roles, and by Clinical Exercise Physiology students. A range of fascinating and informative talks were delivered by professionals working across many areas and with diverse patient populations. By speaking at this conference, the Prehabilitation Team was able to showcase their valuable work to exercise professionals and academics from across the UK, and share their insights with teams working in or aspiring to set up similar services. The Team also gained invaluable knowledge and experience from the other presenters which will lead to improved service provision for patients at Barts.

The Prehabilitation Team would like to thank Barts Guild enormously for facilitating their attendance at this conference, which will no doubt have a positive impact on the care of Barts patients and those across the UK.

ANTHONY ASSADOURIAN
Exercise Physiologist, Oncology Therapies Dept.