Plenary #3- The ISCoS Lecture
Tracks
Plenary Room: F1+F2+F3
| Friday, October 10, 2025 |
| 9:10 - 10:00 |
| Plenary Room F1+F2+F3 |
Details
In this presentation the results of the SCI-MT Trial will be publicly presented for the first time. This trial completed recruitment in February 2025 but the results will not be known until September 2025 when the 6-month followup data are collected on the last participant. The trial involves 15 sites across Australia, Scotland, England, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium. The aim of the trial was to determine whether 10 weeks of intensive motor training enhances neurological recovery in people with recent spinal cord injury (SCI). 220 people with recent SCI (< 10 weeks) and some motor preservation below the level of injury were randomised to receive either usual care plus intensive motor training or usual care alone. The intensive motor training involved 12 hours of one-to-one therapy directed at actively contracting muscles below the level of injury with a focus on task-specific training. The primary outcome was neurological recovery at 10 weeks, measured with the Total Motor Score from the International Standards for Neurological Classification of SCI. Secondary outcomes included global measures of motor function, ability to walk, quality of life, participants’ perceptions about ability to perform self-selected goals, length of hospital stay and participants’ impressions of therapeutic benefit at 10 weeks and 6 months. A cost-effectiveness study and process evaluation were run alongside the trial. This trial is arguably one of the largest non-pharmaceutical intervention trials of a physical rehabilitation strategy to be conducted. To date it has involved 250 academics, clinicians and consumers from around the world. In this presentation Lisa will not only reveal the results but also talk about some of the practical challenges of running a trial of this nature and summarise the key findings from qualitative work conducted alongside the trial.
Presenter (if the session has co-presenters, they will be listed in the APP)
Prof Lisa Harvey
Professor
The University of Sydney
Early and intensive motor training to enhance neurological recovery in people with spinal cord injury: The SCI-MT Trial
Biography
Professor Lisa Harvey (PhD) has 20 years clinical experience as a physiotherapist in the area of spinal cord injuries and another 25 years as an academic at the Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Australia. Most of her research focuses on putting an evidence base to widely administered physiotherapy interventions. She is currently Coordinating Principal Investigator on a large multi-centered international clinical trial (the SCI-MT Trial) looking at the effectiveness of an intensive form of motor training provided soon after injury. She with Associate Professor Glinsky led the development of the Australian and New Zealand Physiotherapy Guidelines for the Management of People with Spinal Cord Injuries. She is Chair of the Scientific and Research Committee of ISCoS and currently leads the Sydney-Australia Unit of the Cochrane Rehab Thematic Group. She was Editor-in-Chief of Spinal Cord between 2017 and 2020, and is currently a Section Editor for Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and an Associate Editor for Cochrane. She setup and continues to manage www.physiotherapyexercises.com: free online exercise prescribing software for physiotherapists managing people with all types of injuries and disabilities.
Moderator
Joanne Glinsky
Associate Professor
University Of Sydney
