Functional Fitness Screening and Falls Efficacy Prescription for Older Adults

Shawn Soh Leng Hsien is a Assistant Professor within the Health and Social Sciences (HSS) Cluster and is heavily involved in academia, research, and professional practice. He has over twenty years of physiotherapy experience and is dedicated to advancing ortho-geriatric practices.

Here's a summary of his notable roles, contributions, and achievements:

Academic and Education Roles: Shawn serves as a Senior Lecturer within the Health and Social Sciences Cluster, where he teaches various subjects related to physiotherapy, including musculoskeletal physiotherapy, manual therapy, exercise rehabilitation, and geriatric physiotherapy. He is also the Year 2 Physiotherapy Coordinator. Shawn engages with undergraduate and postgraduate students, sharing his expertise in physiotherapy and related topics. He earned his Master's in Manipulative Physiotherapy from the University of Queensland (Australia) and a PhD from Queen Margaret University (UK).

Editorial Positions: Shawn is actively involved in scholarly publications. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Frailty, Sarcopenia, and Falls. Additionally, he acts as a co-editor for a special topic titled "Insights into Falls Efficacy and Fear of Falling" under the Frontiers in Aging and Psychology journal. He is an invited peer-reviewer for over ten international journals and continues to do his best to help advance topic-relevant practices.

Research Contributions: Shawn has made significant contributions to physiotherapy research. He developed the Balance Recovery Confidence Scale, the world's first measurement instrument for assessing balance recovery confidence in older adults. This scale aims to gauge perceived reactive balance recovery abilities, providing a deeper understanding of the concept of fall efficacy.  Together with Dr Audrey Lim and physiotherapy academic colleagues, he started Singapore's first physiotherapy standardised patient program at Nanyang Polytechnic. He was also the physiotherapy lead for a multicentre project headed by A/P Liaw Sok Ying to develop Singapore's first virtual reality simulation programme to promote interprofessional learning among healthcare students.

Ongoing Research Interests: Shawn's research interests focus on providing evidence on the psychometric properties of fall efficacy-related measurement instruments and the effectiveness of related interventions. He has led or co-led completed projects totalling over a million dollars, indicating the significance and scale of his research endeavours.

Professional Practice: Shawn holds the position of Visiting Associate Academician at Singhealth. He is a lifetime member of the Singapore Physiotherapy Association and currently chairs the SPA Community SIG (Singapore). He is deeply involved in the Asian Falls network, connecting researchers and clinical experts to advance fall practice. He is also the Founder of Falls Efficacy.com.

Ms Ho Jiaying is a highly experienced principal physiotherapist with a Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy from Curtin University of Technology, Australia (2004). She holds dual Master's degrees from the University of Queensland, Australia—Master of Physiotherapy (Sports) (2009) and Master of Physiotherapy (Musculoskeletal) (2010). With a strong passion for advancing the field of physiotherapy, Jiaying is committed to educating and nurturing the next generation of physiotherapists through her role as a professional officer at the Singapore Institute of Technology.

With a primary focus on sports physiotherapy, Jiaying possesses extensive expertise in managing musculoskeletal conditions. Her career spans various healthcare settings, including restructured hospitals and private physiotherapy clinics. She has also worked with elite sporting teams, providing physiotherapy services to a diverse range of athletes, from school-level competitors to elite professionals. Jiaying's experience includes physiotherapy coverage for major sporting events, such as the Badminton BWF World Championship (2021), SEA Games (2015, 2019), Standard Chartered Marathon (2015-2017), and the Netball Super League.

Jiaying's research interests lie in the assessment and treatment of lower limb musculoskeletal injuries in athletes. Her contributions to the field have been recognised through presentations at esteemed conferences, including the World Confederation for Physical Therapy Congress (2015), and her work has been published in high-impact journals like the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy.

Ms Lin is a senior physiotherapist currently working at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.

Falls prevention and management to empower older adults to age well in place is something very close to her heart. Her strong passion and motivation to change her career from food science to the healthcare sector to serve as a physiotherapist since 2011 stems from her experience in witnessing the detrimental consequences of her beloved grandparent after suffering an injurious fall in the community.

She first graduated with a Diploma in Physiotherapy from Nanyang Polytechnic in 2011 and subsequently completed her physiotherapy degree with 1st class honours in 2014 from Trinity College Dublin. Currently, Ms Lin is the falls and balance training lead in the geriatric rehabilitation team and specialises in providing rehabilitation care to older adults both in the hospital and home visit setting.

Mr Lim is a Strength and Conditioning Coach with over 10 years of experience in operations, training and management in both the private and public sector. Wilson is passionate about training, developing and connecting others to live better lives. 

He graduated with a Master of Science in Sports and Exercise Science & Medicine from the University of Glasgow in 2014 specialising in muscle activation and balance breaking (kuzushi).

Ms Hazel Ting Xu Teng is a senior physiotherapist at Yishun Community Hospital.

Hazel graduated with Bachelor’s in Science (Physiotherapy) from Trinity College Dublin-Singapore Institute of Technology, and later completed her Masters in Applied Gerontology at NTU. Hazel has gained experience across various clinical settings in both acute and community hospitals, with a particular interest in the geriatric population.

Believing strongly in the importance of falls prevention and empowering older adults and their caregivers, Hazel has led and participated in projects relevant to these areas. Inspired by her mentors, Hazel is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of physiotherapists, including junior physiotherapists at work and SIT physiotherapy students across four thesis research projects.

Dawn Skelton is Professor of Ageing and Health in the Department of Physiotherapy and Paramedicine at Glasgow Caledonian University. She Co-Leads the Ageing Well Research Group and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.

As an Exercise Physiologist, she has a keen interest in exercise rehabilitation within a falls prevention scope, from the hospital-based physiotherapy delivery to the community-based specialist exercise instructor provision. Her current research ranges from motivation and patient preference to engaging the very frail, increasing adherence to long-term exercise and working with the pre-frail to prevent poor outcomes later. Implementation, fidelity and quality of evidence-based interventions when delivered in different settings is also her passion.

She chaired the Royal Osteoporosis Society’s Statement on Exercise and Osteoporosis (2018) and the Older People panel for the UK’s update of the Physical Activity for Health Guidelines (2019). She is currently a Member of the British Geriatrics Society Falls and Bone Health Section and is part of the Community Rehabilitation Alliance and the National Falls Prevention Co-ordination Group. She is a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Older People and Frailty Policy Research Unit (OPFPRU) funded by the NIHR. In her spare time, she is a Director of the not-for-profit training company, Later Life Training, based in Killin, Perthshire.