MARCH Trial: What does the evidence mean for your practice?

Professor Bronwen Connolly

Acute Respiratory and Rehabilitation Physiotherapist

Acute respiratory and rehabilitation physiotherapy, the recovery, long-term outcome, and survivorship of post critical illness patients, and clinical trial methodology around complex rehabilitation interventions. Current work includes development of a core outcome set for trials of physical rehabilitation in critical illness, and leading a multiprofessional team developing a randomized controlled trial investigating the effectiveness of mucoactive drugs in acute respiratory failure.

Dr Ema Swingwood OBE

Consultant Physiotherapist, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

Ema is a Consultant Physiotherapist in Critical Care at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. Her area of clinical expertise and interest is ventilation, weaning and complex airway clearance. She has lectured at International conferences over a number of years around these topics.

Her PhD work focused on the use of Mechanical Insufflation-Exsufflation in the intubated population which was funded through the NIHR Clinical Academic Research Fellowship pathway. Post-doctoral work continues to examine the role of airway clearance interventions in the ICU population, which includes recent development of a core outcome set. She is a current Senior Clinical Practitioner Research Award holder (2025-7).

Regarding research capacity and capability building, Ema is passionate about developing others. She is the current Adult Therapies and Division of Diagnostics and Therapies Research Lead.  Most recently she was a co-applicant on a successful NIHR Health and Care Professions Internship Programme for Southwest Central and lead applicant NIHR Undergraduate Internship Placement award.

Education contributions include the Physiotherapy programmes at the University of the West of England and University College London. She sits on the Intensive Care Society (ICS) Physiotherapy Professional Advisory Group (Deputy Chair) and Education Committee, she is the current Programme Director for the ICS annual congress (SOA) and Deputy Chair for Professional Affairs. 

: @emaroids1