Dr Alison Hammond

PhD, MSc, BSc(Hons), DipCOT

Alison is a Reader in Rheumatology Rehabilitation at the University of Salford. She developed her interests in Rheumatology in the 1980’s as a Senior Occupational Therapist (OT) in Manchester. She decided to pursue a research career in Rheumatology, gaining a PhD in 1994 from the Psychology department, Nottingham University related to patient education and health behaviour change in Rheumatology OT for rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Since then she has worked at the University of Derby, Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and now University of Salford: leading single and multi-centre randomised controlled trials evaluating joint protection, other OT interventions and patient education programmes for people with inflammatory arthritis and for fibromyalgia; developing Rheumatology OT outcome measures; and investigating the impact of arthritis on daily life and attitudes to self-management.

She is also involved in studies evaluating: fatigue interventions in RA, splinting, patient education and OT in hand OA. She has authored over 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, including self-help materials for people with RA. In addition, Alison helped with developing arc's Graduate Certificate in Rheumatology Practice (GCRP) which aims to improve training for rheumatology extended role practitioners/ nurses.

She was an arc Senior Lecturer and GCRP course leader at the University of Brighton from 2005-2007. Alison has been a committee member for the National Association of Rheumatology OT and the British Health Professions in Rheumatology, and is currently a member of the EULAR Allied Health Professions committee.