Dr Agnieszka Lewko

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Agnieszka Lewko
About
Teaching and learning
Research
Professional practice, knowledge exchange and impact
Leadership and management
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About

I completed a BSc (Hons) and an MSc in Physiotherapy in Krakow (Poland) in 2001. I was awarded a PhD from St. George's University of London in 2013. My professional expertise is in cardiorespiratory physiotherapy, pulmonary rehabilitation, and respiratory care within primary and secondary care settings. I have gained clinical and research experience in Poland, Belgium and the UK. I am also an independent and supplementary prescriber.

I have been a part of the ERS Task Force group for the HERMES (Harmonised Education in Respiratory Medicine for European Specialists) project that worked on a development of a harmonised syllabus and curriculum for post-graduate education in respiratory physiotherapy. Currently, I am a member of the editorial board for the Association of Charted Physiotherapist in Respiratory Care (ACPRC). I collaborate nationally and internationally with academic and professional colleagues in the UK, Poland and Spain. My special research interests are Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease management, Subjective Fatigue, Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Ambulatory Oxygen and respiratory physiotherapy practice and education. I have been an invited speaker to various international conferences and reviewer for peer-reviewed journals. I am a member of European Respiratory Society (ERS), British Thoracic Society (BTS) and The Polish Chamber of Physiotherapists (KIF).

I have been involved in undergraduate and post-graduate student teaching across various courses in the Faculty of Health and Social Care and Education since 2005. Currently, I lead modules for pre-registration physiotherapy courses, as well as post-graduate interdisciplinary prescribing module for HCPC members. I am involved in post-graduate research student supervision and teaching research methods.

Academic responsibilities

Senior Lecturer

Qualifications

  • Independent and supplementary prescribing, St. George's University of London
  • Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
  • PhD in Health Science, St. George's University of London
  • MSc (Hons) Physiotherapy, University School of Physical Education, Krakow, Poland
  • BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy, University School of Physical Education, Krakow, Poland

Teaching and learning

I am influencing development of respiratory physiotherapy education nationally and internationally. I have been an active member of the international HERMES Project Task Group, which in assossiation with the Europen Respiratory Society, developed the syllabus and curriculum for the postgraduate respiratory physiotherapy education across the world. The results have been published in peer-reviewed journals (see research repository). The syllabus and curriculum have established international standards and a benchmark for postgraduate education in respiratory physiotherapy specialists across the world.

I collaborate with the Polish Chamber of Physiotherapists to increase interest and awarness of best practice in respiratory physiotherapy. During COVID pandemics I led the development of rapid recommendations for physiotherapists in Poland working with COVID patients. I have been also invited as a lead author to write a book on Respiratory Physiotherapy. First part of the open access ebook on respiratory assessment has been published in 2020 (See research repository).

External and International collaborations:

  • 2012-2019: Task Force Member - the Harmonised Education and Training in Respiratory Medicine for European specialists (HERMES) project associated with the European Respiratory Society (ERS) - Development of syllabus and curriculum for Specialists in Respiratory Physiotherapy
  • Fostering international collaborations with European partners - Erasmus Plus collaborative and teaching visits:
    - 2019 - hosting Dr Anna Pyszora - from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland 
    - 2018 - hosting and visiting Dr Raquel Sebio - from Techno Campus University, Barcelona, Spain
  • 2017 -  Bespoke Teaching course for Healthcare Professionals from China (Heythorp project)

Teaching module leadership:

  • Cardio-Respiratory Physiotherapy Module (BSc and pre-Reg Physiotherapy)
  • Independent and Supplementary Prescribing (HCPC) Module (MSc Healthcare Practice/ Advanced Clinical Practice): https://www.applycpd.com/KUSGUL/courses/108180
  • Pulmonary Rehabilitation Module (Post Graduate Rehabilitation)
  • 2017-2020 Research Methods module (BSc in Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy)

 Leadership role:

  • Exam and Assessment Tutor (EAT) - Department of Rehabilitation Sciences

Qualifications and expertise

  • Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA; 2016)
  • Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA; 2015)

Undergraduate courses taught

Postgraduate courses taught

Research

I am involved in collaborative research projects investigating respiratory physiotherapy (education and practice), pulmonary rehabilitation, and respiratory muscle strength measures. I am also co-applicant on number of research grants. I present research on national and international conferences and publish in peer-reviewed journals. I review for number of peer-reviewed journals, Cochrane Collaboration and NIHR grant funding. My special research interests are Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Subjective Fatigue, Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Ambulatory Oxygen and Cardio-respiratory physiotherapy.

For 7 years (2012-2019), I have been a member of the Harmonised Education and Training in Respiratory Medicine for European specialists (HERMES) project working task group associated with European Respiratory Society (ERS).   Curriculum design methodology (Delphi methodology) was adopted and national responders across the world has been involved.  The project developed syllabus and curriculum in postgraduate education for respiratory physiotherapists and results were published

Editorial and committee roles:

  • 2021 - Associated Thematic Editor Physiotherapy Review Journal  https://www.termedia.pl/Journal/Physiotherapy_Review-161/Info
  • 2019- current: Editorial Board member. Association of Charted Physiotherapist in Respiratory Care (ACPRC)
  • 2016-2021: Member of the Editorial Board- Medical Rehabilitation: https://rehmed.pl/resources/html/cms/SCIENTIFICCOUNCIL
  • 2018-2019:  Faculty Research Ethics Committee member Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education.

Research Grants:

  • 2020 - First Research Grant (£6322) - Kingston University: Exploring fatigue characteristic and coping strategies in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in context of Pulmonary Rehabilitation.
  • 2015 - Santander Mobility Scheme fund award (£1000) -  collaborative research with the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw (Poland): Reliability of repeated respiratory muscle strength measurements in acute and sub-acute stroke.

Research student supervision

MRes (Clinical Research)

  • Ruth Baker (succesful completion): A comparison of the standardised 6 minute walk test (6MWT) with a non-standardised assessment to prescribe ambulatory oxygen for patients on discharge from hospital.
  • Amber Lane (succesful completion): A comparison of two capillary earlobe blood sampling techniques in relation to arterial blood gas sampling in patients at risk of chronic hypoxaemia 
  • Darren Brown (succesful completion): Prevalence, severity and risk factors of disability among people living with HIV in the UK
  • Teresa Clark (current)

MSc Pharmacy

  • Nour Toukan (succesful completion) - co-suppervised with Dr Amr Elshaer (Department of Pharmacy) and Dr Stefan Tino Kulnik (Centre for Health and Social Care Research): A Systematic Review of the Respiratory Applications of Capsaicin 

Research group membership:

  • Inclusive Health and Wellbeing Research Group https://www.healthcare.ac.uk/research-2/inclusive-health-and-wellbeing-research-group/
  • Healthcare Education Research and Evaluation (HERE) https://www.healthcare.ac.uk/research-2/healthcare-education-research-and-evaluation/

Areas of specialism

  • Pulmonary Rehabilitation
  • Subjective Fatigue
  • Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
  • Cardio-respiratory physiotherapy practice and education

Publications

Jump to: Article | Conference or Workshop Item | Monograph | Thesis
Number of items: 20.

Article

Lewko, Agnieszka, Sidaway, Marta, Kulnik, Stefan Tino and Krawczyk, Maciej (2021) Agreement and reliability of repeated bedside respiratory muscle strength measurements in acute and subacute stroke. Physiotherapy Research International, e1892. ISSN (print) 1358-2267 (Epub Ahead of Print)

Kulnik, Stefan Tino, Lewko, Agnieszka, MacBean, Victoria and Spinou, Arietta (2020) Accuracy in the assessment of cough peak flow : good progress for a "work in progress". Respiratory Care, 65(1), pp. 133-134. ISSN (print) 0020-1324

Lewko, Agnieszka and Pyszora, Anna (2020) Fizjoterapia oddechowa – to nie tylko cwiczenia oddechowe i odkrztuszanie. Glos Fizjoterapeuty, 3, pp. 42-44. ISSN (print) 2545-3637

Troosters, Thierry, Tabin, Nathalie, Langer, Daniel, Burtin, Chris, Chatwin, Michelle, Clini, Enrico M., Emtner, Margareta, Gosselink, Rik, Grant, Kathleen, Inal-Ince, Deniz, Lewko, Agnieszka, Main, Eleanor, Mitchell, Sharon, Niculescu, Alexandra, Oberwaldner, Beatrice and Pitta, Fabio (2019) Introduction of the harmonised respiratory physiotherapy curriculum. Breathe, 15(2), pp. 110-115. ISSN (print) 1810-6838

Troosters, Thierry, Langer, Daniel, Burtin, Chris, Chatwin, Michelle, Clini, Enrico M., Emtner, Margareta, Gosselink, Rik, Grant, Kathleen, Inal-Ince, Deniz, Lewko, Agnieszka, Main, Eleanor, Oberwaldner, Beatrice, Tabin, Nathalie and Pitta, Fabio (2019) A guide for respiratory physiotherapy postgraduate education : presentation of the harmonised curriculum. European Respiratory Journal, 53(6), ISSN (print) 0903-1936

Troosters, Thierry, Pitta, Fabio, Oberwaldner, Beatrice, Lewko, Agnieszka, Inal-Ince, Deniz, Grant, Kathleen, Gosselink, Rik, Burtin, Chris, Emtner, Margareta, Clini, Enrico, Chatwin, Michelle and Mitchell, Sharon (2015) Development of a syllabus for postgraduate respiratory physiotherapy education : the Respiratory Physiotherapy HERMES project. European Respiratory Journal, 45(5), pp. 1221-1223. ISSN (print) 0903-1936

Pitta, Fabio, Mitchell, Sharon, Chatwin, Michelle, Clini, Enrico, Emtner, Margareta, Gosselink, Rik, Grant, Kathleen, Inal-Ince, Deniz, Lewko, Agnieszka, Oberwaldner, Beatrice, Williams, Johanna and Troosters, Thierry (2014) A core syllabus for post-graduate training in respiratory physiotherapy. Breathe - Continuing Medical Education for Respiratory Professionals, 10(3), pp. 220-228. ISSN (print) 1810-6838

Lewko, Agnieszka, Bidgood, Penelope L., Jewell, Andy and Garrod, Rachel (2014) Evaluation of multidimensional COPD-related subjective fatigue following a Pulmonary Rehabilitation programme. Respiratory Medicine, 108(1), pp. 95-102. ISSN (print) 0954-6111

Lewko, Agnieszka, Bidgood, Penelope, Jewell, Andy and Garrod, Rachel (2012) A comprehensive literature review of COPD-related fatigue. Current Respiratory Medicine Reviews, 8(5), pp. 370-382. ISSN (print) 1573-398X

Lewko, Agnieszka, Bidgood, Penelope L and Garrod, Rachel (2009) Evaluation of psychological and physiological predictors of fatigue in patients with COPD. BMC Pulmonary Medicine, 9(1), ISSN (online) 1471-2466

Lewko, A., Marshall, J. and Garrod, R. (2007) Ambulatory oxygen therapy assessment : a comparative study of incremental shuttle and 6-minute walking tests. Physiotherapy, 93(4), pp. 261-266. ISSN (print) 0031-9406

Conference or Workshop Item

Lewko, Agnieszka, Kulnik, Stefan Tino, Sidaway, Marta and Krawczyk, Maciej (2019) Test-retest reliability of respiratory muscle testing in stroke. In: ERS International Congress 2019; 28 Sep - 02 Oct 2019, Madrid, Spain. (Unpublished)

Brown, D., Sedgwick, P., O’Brien, K.K., Harding, R., Boffito, M., Nelson, M. and Lewko, A. (2019) Disability prevalence, domains and associations with age, among people living with HIV accessing routine outpatient HIV care in London, UK: a cross-sectional self-report study. In: 25th Annual Conference of the British HIV Association; 02-05 April 2019, Bournemouth, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Krawczyk, M., Sidaway, M., Kulnik, S. and Lewko, A. (2019) Association between respiratory muscle strength and measures of stroke severity and function. In: Third Congress on Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair : from Science to Evidence-based Practice; 22-24 May 2019, Maastricht, Netherlands. (Unpublished)

Lewko, Agnieszka, Sidaway, Marta and Krawczyk, Maciej (2016) Reliability of three respiratory muscle tests in post-stroke patients. A pilot study. In: ERS International Congress 2016; 03-07 Sep 2016, London, U.K..

Lewko, Agnieszka, Harlow, Stephanie K.M., MacDonald, Paul and Irvin-Sellers, Melanie (2015) Effects of post exacerbation pulmonary rehabilitation (PEPR) on exercise tolerance, quality of life (QoL), anxiety, depression and healthcare utilisation. In: ERS International Congress 2015; 26-30 Sep 2015, Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Unpublished)

Lewko, A., Ooms, A., Cole, M. J. and Hammond, J. (2015) Differences in current approaches to respiratory physiotherapy student practice education across Europe. In: World Confederation for Physical Therapy Congress 2015; 01-04 May 2015, Singapore, Singapore.

Monograph

Cieloszczyk, Aleksandra, Lewko, Agnieszka, Sliwka, Agnieszka, Wloch, Tomasz and Pyszora, Anna (2020) Koronawirus : SARS-Cov-2 : Zalecenia do prowadzenia fitjoterapii doroslych pacjentów z COVID-19 = Coronavirus : SARS-Cov-2 : Recommendations for physiotherapy of adult patients with COVID-19. (Documentation) Warsaw, Poland : Krajowa Izba Fizjoterapeutów = The Polish Chamber of Physiotherapists. 17 p.

Lewko, Agnieszka and Pyszora, Anna (2020) Badanie fizjoterapeutyczne pacjenta z dysfunkcją układu oddechowego [Physiotherapy assessment of a patient with respiratory dysfunction]. (Other) Warsaw, Poland : Krajowa Izba Fizjoterapeutów [Polish Chamber of Physiotherapists]. 72 p. ISBN 9788395458125

Thesis

Lewko, Agnieszka (2013) Evaluation of subjective fatigue associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. (PhD thesis), St George's, University of London, .

This list was generated on Fri Apr 23 07:12:12 2021 BST.

Professional practice, knowledge exchange and impact

I have 18 years experience in clinical practice. I am specialised in respiratory physiotherapy and gained experience working in Poland and in the UK. My diversified experience included work with patients in acute hospital, in the community and with pulmonary rehabilitation. Currently, I am an active member of a number of respiratory and physiotherapy societies and involved in many project influencing development of respiratory physiotherapy practice.

Professional and scholarly activities:

  • Editoral Board Member of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Respiratory Care
  • Leading on promoting respiratory physiotherapy speciality and knowledge exchange in collaboration with the Polish Chamber of Physiotherapits (Krajowa Rada Fizjoterapeutów-KIF) - Invited author for ebook on respiratory assessment in physiotherapy, Development of recommandations and training for physiotherapists working with COVID patients (see Research publications)
    Invited Speaker by the Polish Physiotherapy Society - Webinars on Respiratory Assessment for Polish physiotherapists

Professional Memberships:

    Charted Society of Physiotherapy (UK): member since 2005
  • Health Care Professionals Council (UK): registration since 2005
  • Association of Charted Physiotherapist in Respiratory Care (UK): membership
  • European Respiratory Society (ERS): member since 2004
  • British Thoracic Society (UK): member since 2017

Qualifications and expertise

  • Independent and supplementary prescriber
  • Cardiorespiratory physiotherapy

Leadership and management

University responsibilities

  • 2017-2020: Exam and Assessment Tutor for Department of Rehabilitation Sciences
  • 2019-2022: Member of the Senate- St. George's University of London        

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