meet the tops team
The Tops Team
The TOPS (Therapeutic Opportunities team) - Tania Burge, Angela Davies Smith and Olivia Powell, are a team of research and clinical physiotherapists, clinical assistants, occupational therapists and scientists interested in improving physical treatments for MS through research and medical engineering developments.
Tania is a MS specialist physiotherapist at the North Bristol NHS Trust who specialises in helping people with multiple sclerosis (MS). MS Research Treatment and Education (MS Research) partly fund her in this role, supporting her in many ways including through various modules during her Master’s degree in Physiotherapy as well as partly funding an MS Assistant Practitioner, Olivia Powell.
In this role Tania has created numerous services that are specialised to help people with MS. She has developed a community based cool water aqua-therapy for people with MS with advanced balance problems as well as a gym based intervention for people with MS high level function.
Both interventions are designed to help with individual issues people with MS experience, and this is where Tania’s work is so beneficial - through providing responsive and innovative services, she focuses on the varying problems those living with MS face and finds ways to help people improve their quality of life.
Through winning several national awards instigated by the MS Trust, QuDoS (Recognising Quality in the Delivery of Services in Multiple Sclerosis), Tania has seen her efforts recognised across the country. She was named the Outstanding Allied Health Professional in 2017, while the Therapeutic Opportunities (Tops) team won the Real World Evidence in Care award in the same year.
What Next?
Tania has been appointed to the role of MS Advanced Care Champion; a national team funded by the MS Trust to support management of advanced MS care across the UK. Angela has numerous research publications to her name and remains part of the MS Research team in Bristol currently working with Movement Disorders specialists and clinical engineering partners on MS related tremor and running MS fatigue management courses and FES delivery supported by Olivia Powell.
