Principal Research Fellow Dr Rachel Young BSc (hons), MSc, PhD

About

Rachel qualified as a physiotherapist in 1995 and spent the early years of her career employed within the NHS, specialising in neurological rehabilitation. Completing an MSc in Neurological Physiotherapy in 2003, she transitioned into an academic role at Sheffield Hallam University alongside continued clinical practice. Rachel developed a specific interest in exercise solutions within neurological rehabilitation and pioneered collaboration with the industrial sector to co-develop adapted exercise equipment to address unmet needs for this clinical population. Successfully completing a PhD focussed on exercise for people living with stroke, her post-doctoral portfolio comprises multiple projects which aim to co-design, evaluate and implement rehabilitation technologies.

Rachel is currently employed as a Principal Researcher at Sheffield Hallam University where she is based within the School of Health and Social Care and co-located at the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre. Collaborating with engineers, exercise scientists, healthcare professionals and psychologists, she advances technologies which aim to enable movement and improve quality of life for complex clinical populations.

Specialist areas of interest

Exercise prescription
Neurological rehabilitation

Teaching

School of Health and Social Care

College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences

Service evaluation of a physical activity programme for long term musculoskeletal conditions: ongoing
Feasibility study to explore the use of accessible isokinetic equipment for people with long term neurological conditions (2013)

Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences

Operating Department Practice

Reading Group Lead for Research Excellence Framework: UoA3 Long-term conditions

Research

• Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre
• Health Research Institute

Current projects:

Power Assisted Circuit Exercise for Stroke (PACE4S): NIHR funded project which aims to evaluate and refine a power assisted circuit exercise intervention (2025-2027) Principal Investigator

Smart Balance Active for Stroke: BioMed Catalyst funded project which aims to evaluate the Smart Balance Active device within the stroke pathway (2025-2026) Principal Investigator

Joint-Prep: South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub funded project to co-design a prehabilitation technology for joint arthroplasty (2024-2026) Co-Investigator

PRIMI: Horizon funded project to develop a robot to augment stroke rehabilitation (2024-2027) Co-Investigator

Physical Activity Clinical Champions: Sport England funded educational intervention with place-based pilot (2023-2027) Academic Lead

Publications

Young, R., Sage, K., Broom, D., Hext, A., Snowdon, N., & Smith, C. (2023). Evaluating the usability of a co-designed power assisted exercise graphical user interface for people with stroke. Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 20(1), 95. England: BioMed Central Ltd.

Young, R., Sage, K., Broom, D., Hext, A., & Smith, C. (2022). Effective use of storyboarding as a co-design method to enhance power assisted exercise equipment for people with stroke. Design for Health (Abingdon, England), ahead-of-print(-), 1-32. doi:10.1080/24735132.2022.2101257

Young, R., Smith, C., Sage, K., & Broom, D. (2021). Application of the nominal group technique to inform a co-design project on power assisted exercise equipment for people with stroke. Physiotherapy, 113, e80-e81. doi:10.1016/j.physio.2021.10.049

Young, R., Broom, D., O'Brien, R., Sage, K., & Smith, C. (2021). Users' experience of community-based power assisted exercise: A transition from NHS to third sector services. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being, 16(1), 1949899. doi:10.1080/17482631.2021.1949899

Young, R.E., Sage, K., Smith, C., et al. 2019. “Experiences of venue based exercise interventions for people with stroke in the UK: a systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative research.” Physiotherapy, 105, 3. doi.org/10.1016/j.physio.2019.06.001

Young, R.E., Broom D., Smith, C., et al. 2018. “Power assisted exercise for people with complex neurological impairment: a feasibility study.” International journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 25 (6). doi-org.hallam.idm.oclc.org/10.12968/ijtr.2018.25.6.262

Hassan, M., Young R., Di Nuevo A. (2025) “Integrating Humanoid Robots in Stroke Rehabilitation: Practitioners’ Expectations and Insight.” ACM Digital Library

Ngeh, E., Mclean, S., Kuaban, C., Young, R., Strafford, B., & Lidster, J. (2024). People at Risk of, or with Cardiovascular Diseases’ Perspectives and Perceptions of Physiotherapist-Led Health Promotion in Cameroon: A Mixed-Methods Study. MDPI AG.

Ngeh, E. N., McLean, S., Kuaban, C., Young, R., & Lidster, J. (2024). A Survey of Practice and Factors Affecting Physiotherapist-Led Health Promotion for People at Risk or with Cardiovascular Disease in Cameroon. MDPI.

Ngeh, E.N., Young, R.E., Kuaban, C., McLean, S., Stafford, B.W., Lidster, J. (2025). Cameroonian physiotherapists’ practice, confidence and perception of health promotion for people at risk of or with cardiovascular disease: a qualitative study. Healthcare. Doi: 10.3390/healthcare13101172.

Fowler-Davis, S., Young, R., Maden-Wilkinson, T., Hameed, W., Dracas, E., Hurrell, E., Bahl, R., et al. (2022). Assessing the acceptability of a co-produced long COVID intervention in an underserved community in the UK. MDPI.

Reading Group Lead for Research Excellence Framework: UoA3 Long-term conditions

https://www.innerva.com/

https://exyodesign.com/

Publications

Other activities

External examiner for doctoral candidates.

Postgraduate supervision

I am currently supervising six doctoral students from Sheffield Hallam University and Le Trobe University (Melbourne).

Media

Presented at Physiotherapy 2015 as a speaker on the workforce development theme.