Sport and Exercise Medicine

We investigate the importance of physically active lifestyles in preventing major chronic diseases. In work led by Professor Mark Hamer, we use data to understand how much physical activity is needed to prevent illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. Professor Mike Loosemore conducts research into sedentary behaviour and how we can design interventions to incorporate more movement into daily lives.

We engage with cohort studies, including UCL Centre Longitudinal Studies, the Whitehall II Study, and English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

Our ongoing projects include:

• Compiling international cohort studies that use wearable technology to measure physical activity, sedentary and sleep [propassconsortium.org].
• Evaluating the impact of group exercise on activity levels in people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in central London.
• Examining links between exercise and neurocognitive function.

We investigate pathologies around the lower limb, especially the knee and hip. This is led by Professor Fares Haddad. We research the effects on functional outcomes and lifestyle after interventions such as hip replacement. We have devised several unique techniques and scores to evaluate this in detail.

Our research themes include: 

• Meniscal preservation and replacement.
• Optimal imaging for knee injuries.
• The natural history of meniscal and cruciate injuries.
• Tendinopathy, where we have created a ‘think tank’ of experts to understand the natural history, diagnosis, and optimum management of the condition.

Our work supports the health and wellbeing of athletes. We are one of just eleven research centres from across the world designated as an International Olympic Committee (IOC) Research Centre for Prevention of Injury and Protection of Athlete Health.

Our focus areas are:

• Respiratory illness in elite athletes.
• Concussion: developing an office tool for concussion to be used in clinic.
• Oral health and performance (in collaboration with Eastman Dental Institute).