Musculoskeletal Health (Formerly Physical Therapy)
Ms. Melanie Bladen is a physical therapist in the UK who has been specializing in working with hemophilia for the last 14 years. She received a BSc in Physiotherapy in 1993 and her masters in Physiotherapy in 2007 and has experience of over 20 years treating persons with hemophilia. Ms. Bladen has been promoting the use of HJHS throughout the United Kingdom’s National Health Service guidelines for comprehensive care for over 11 years. She established the national physiotherapy hemophilia meeting that aims to improve research in physiotherapy and has been running for over 12 years. Due to her early advocacy, the UK nationwide has incorporated the use of the HJHS at all comprehensive clinic visits. Ms. Bladen has authored a paper focusing on gait as an early sub-clinical indicator of joint disease. She is involved in a study looking at physical function in adolescents with hemophilia and has been a co-author for numerous papers. Ms. Bladen has published 2 specific papers that focus on the use of the HJHS and has expressed her interest in the development of an electric version of the HJHS.
Bladen M, Main E, Hubert N, Liesner R, Khair K. Factors affecting the Haemophilia Joint Health Score in children with severe haemophilia. Haemophilia 2013;19: 4 626-631
Nijdam A, Bladen M, Hubert N, Pettersson M, Bartels B, van der Net J, Liesner R, Petrini P, Kurnik K, Fischer K Using routine Haemophilia Joint Health Score for international comparisons of haemophilia outcome: standardization is needed. Haemophilia. 2016 Jan;22(1):142-7
Bladen M, Carroll L, Dodd C, Drechsler W, Hashem F, Patel V, Pellatt-Higgins T, Saloniki E, Stephensen D. Results of feasibility and safety of randomised controlled trial of a musculoskeletal exercise intervention versus usual care for children with haemophilia. Haemophilia 2020. DOI: 10.1111/hae.14026
Isolde A.R. Kuijlaars, Janjaap van der Net , Brian M. Feldman, Magnus
Aspdahl ,Melanie Bladen, Wypke de Boer,Rubén Cuesta‐Barriuso, Ruth E.D. Matlary , Sharon M. Funk, Pamela Hilliard, Judy A. John, Christine L. Kempton, Piet de Kleijn,Marilyn Manco-Johnson, Pia Petrini,Pradeep Poonnoose, Jean St-Louis,Sylvia Thomas, Merel A. Timmer, | Sonata Saulyte Trakymiene, Leo van Vlimmeren, Kathelijn Fischer. Evaluating international Haemophilia Joint Health Score (HJHS) results combined with expert opinion: Options for a shorter HJHS. Haemophilia 2020 DOI: 0.1111/hae.14180
Thorpe N, Harniess P, Main, E, Hubert, N, Rand S, Stephensen D, Liesner R, Bladen M. Feasibility, safety and acceptability of select outcome measures in a physiotherapy study protocol for boys with haemophilia. Pilot Feasibility Stud 7, 105 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-021-00831-1