Our research in the Health Science, Technology and Psychology arena delves into child development, exercise science and stroke recovery. 

One of our multidisciplinary teams is the Canterbury Child Development Research Group (CCDRG), which is investigating critical child development issues concerned with early developmental risks, brain development, parenting and family functioning.

Our Mental Health and Nutrition Research Group is finding nutritional interventions that are effective in treating psychological illness. They test new, groundbreaking multinutrient formulae, probiotics and other natural, beneficial substances; running studies on psychological disorders including ADHD.

The Sport and Exercise Research Lab (SERL) focuses on research and development in and around sport and exercise. SERL has strong international leadership.

The state-of-the-art Canterbury Rose Centre for Stroke Recovery and Research at St Georges Medical Centre is building on the successes of the current Swallowing Rehabilitation Research Laboratory.

Research strengths

Mathematics and statistics health and ageing research

Areas of current research in mathematics and statistics health and ageing research include:

• International Residential Assessment Instrument (interRAI) clinical assessment tool
• Healthcare analytics
• Mathematical modelling in health-related areas
• Biostatistics and environmental statistics for health research
• Analysis of large data sets (Big Data), graphical displays of data, survey design and design of experiments

Research centres and groups

• New Zealand Health and Ageing Research Group
• Health Research 

Researchers and supervisors

Staff actively working in these areas are:

Health geography

Areas of current research in health geography include:

• Health geography
• Spatial epidemiology
• Geographical Information Systems

Research centres and groups

• GeoHealth Laboratory
• Health and Well-being Research Group

Researchers and supervisors

Staff actively working in these areas are:

Health services collaboration and effectiveness

Areas of current research in health services collaboration and effectiveness include:

• Effectiveness and efficiency of health services in New Zealand
• Analysis of health care and technology

Research centres and groups

• Health Services Assessment Collaboration (HSAC)
• Health Services Research and Evaluation Group (HSREG)

Researchers and supervisors

Staff actively working in these areas are:

Epidemiology

Areas of current research in epidemiology include:

• Environmental risk factors for breast cancer
• Population attributable risks for breast cancer
• Head and neck cancer support services
• Patterns in male and female breast cancer

Research centres and groups

• Wayne Francis Cancer Epidemiology Research Group

Researchers and supervisors

Staff actively working in these areas are:

Sleep problems

Areas of current research in sleep problems include:

• Sleep intervention
• Infant sleep development and prevention of sleep problems

Research centres and groups

• Canterbury Sleep Programme (CSP)

Researchers and supervisors

Staff actively working in these areas are:

Childhood development

Areas of current research in childhood development include:

• Neurodevelopmental outcomes of infants born very preterm
• Neurodevelopmental outcomes of infants exposed to methadone during pregnancy 
• Childhood exposure to family violence and later parenting risks

Research centres and groups

• Canterbury Child Development Research Group (CCDRG)

Researchers and supervisors

Staff actively working in these areas are:

Employee resilience

Areas of current research in employee resilience include:

• The Building Resilient Infrastructure Project (Resilient Organisations website) 
• Wellbeing research
• The long tail of organisational recovery from disaster
• Resilience development research

Research centres and groups

• Employee Resilience Research Group

Researchers and supervisors

Staff actively working in these areas are:

Mental health nutrition

Areas of current in mental health nutrition include:

• Nutritional interventions for treating psychological illness

Research centres and groups

• Mental Health and Nutrition Research Group

Researchers and supervisors

Staff actively working in these areas are:

Stroke rehabilitation and recovery

Areas of current research in stroke rehabilitation and recovery include:

• Biofeedback in Strength and Skill Training (BiSSkiT) training protocol and software program
• Patients, Engineers, Researchers and Clinicians (PERC) rehabilitation technologies
• Pharyngeal high resolution manometry (HRM)
• Strength and endurance of submental and lingual muscles
• Cough strength testing in acute dysphagia management

Research centres and groups

• The Rose Centre for Stroke Recovery and Research

Researchers and supervisors

Staff actively working in these areas are:

Sport and exercise research

Areas of current research in sport and exercise research include:

• Enabling success in elite level team sport for Indigenous Australians
• Keeping girls in sport
• Pasifika engagement in science and technology through sport
• Sport-specific measurement and evaluation tools for rock climbing
• Citywide approaches to increasing physical activity levels
• Muscle trauma and stress in rugby players and cage fighters
• Inflammation in sports injuries
• Concussive and sub-concussive impacts on rugby players

Research centres and groups

• Sport and Exercise Research Lab (SERL)

Researchers and supervisors

Staff actively working in these areas are:

Intelligent and adaptive health systems

Areas of current research in Intelligent and adaptive health systems include:

• Personalisation in aphasia rehabilitation
• Increasing motivation in rehabilitation by enlisting help from the patient
• Prospective memory rehabilitation

Research centres and groups

• intelliHealth Systems Research Lab

Researchers and supervisors

Staff actively working in these areas are: