AGE Research Group members welcomed an early career researcher colleague from Germany for a short visit last week. Dr Selma Fensel-Merz, a trainee orthopaedic surgeon, visited Newcastle to meet members of the AGE Research Group and the DIAN (Digital Health Innovation and Ageing and Neurodegeneration) group, and gave a talk outlining her career to date and aspirations for future research. Selma has a particular interest in sarcopenia and gait, and there were plenty of fruitful discussions around the recognition and treatment of sarcopenia in clinical practice and opportunities for improving assessment through digital and wearable measures.
A series of meetings and activities followed over the next three days, observing study visits for the MASS-Lifecourse and REVITALiSE studies, meeting key researchers, attending group meetings and seeing the research facilities of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and the Clinical Research Facility in Newcastle.
Professor Miles Witham, co-lead of the AGE Research Group said “It was a pleasure to host Selma for this visit – her research interests in sarcopenia overlap with ours and we were able to discuss some of the work we have done locally with orthopaedic colleagues about measurement and diagnosis in sarcopenia, implementing sarcopenia measurement into practice for people with hip fracture, as well as our national BEPOP quality improvement work. Thanks also to colleagues in the DIAN group for their time in helping to host Selma, and we hope that we can all continue to collaborate as Selma further develops her research career.”