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Stefan Kluzek

Clinical Associate Professor in Sport and Exercise Medicine, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences

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Biography

Dr Stefan Kluzek

FRCP DipSEM PGCert M.Sc D.Phil FFSEM

Clinician Scientist in Sport and Exercise Medicine

Dr Stefan Kluzek is a medical doctor specialising in Sport and Exercise Medicine.

He is currently an Associate Professor in sports medicine, where he leads research groups interested in injuries and illnesses affecting the active population, and the consequences of the common causes of chronic muscle and joint pain, including metabolic and hormonal problems.

Following medical training in the North East of England, Stefan completed his consultant physician and academic training in Oxford, where he also undertook a master of science degree and a PhD, identifying metabolic and immunological consequences of joint injuries and joint osteoarthritis. He also has two years of experience as an Academic Clinical Lecturer and senior clinician-scientist at the University.

Stefan strongly believes that tackling common musculoskeletal problems will help us to reduce medical comorbidity in middle and older age - and it is the next big frontier of modern medicine.

He is NUH deputy director for the Versus Arthritis Centre for Sports, Exercise and Osteoarthritis.

Expertise Summary

Stefan works as a Consultant in the NHS as well as Senior Physician for the English Institute of Sport and the Olympic Sports.

His area of expertise is in the diagnosis and treatment of problems arising from the musculoskeletal system, including a common form of arthritis but also muscle, tendon and joint injuries. He also has both clinical and research interests in the management of common cardiometabolic problems, especially in the athletic population, including hypertension and diabetes.

His research explores the role of inflammatory pathways in the development of osteoarthritis but also early diagnostics, therapeutic interventions and clinical pathways of common musculoskeletal conditions. I am particularly interested in identifying the mechanisms leading to early cardiovascular mortality in knee osteoarthritis.

Teaching Summary

Stefan teaches applied anatomy and functional anatomy to under and postgraduate students.

He has a number of postgraduate students and is leading big data projects, including all major US sport injury data depository and automated histology and clinical imaging projects.

Stefan beliefs that all academics research requires skilled professionals who are confident and confident in gathering, managing and analysing large data sets and that those skills can be taught in a way that empowers learners from different backgrounds to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom.

He has been developing a data science skills training program with tools necessary to develop good research questions, training to think in this paradigm, and data literacy skills to answer these findings.

Research Summary

1. Development of a clinically meaningful automated quantitative assessment of knee joint tissues volume

2. Significant Ankle Ligament Injury (SALI) cohort (PI)

Many patients following common severe ankle injury do not fully recover and end up with some lasting ankle problems that can limit the persons' lifestyle. The purpose of this study is to provide new knowledge about:

1) The type of people who attend ED suffering a significant ankle ligament injury 2) What it is about those people and their injury that may mean they go on to develop OA 3) What things influence this chance i.e. who is more likely and who is less likely to go on to develop OA after a significant ankle ligament injury

3. Understanding of clinically relevant phenotypes of osteoarthritis that can improve patient treatment and drug development.

4. The impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection on Recreational Runners: Risks, Recovery and Complications

Over the past forty years, running has developed into one of the most popular physical leisure activities in Europe. An estimated 50 million Europeans are engaged in running as a way to stay healthy and/or to challenge themselves and there has been a marked surge in running events all over Europe. Many active adults with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) experience prolonged fatigue and develop prolonged cardiac or respiratory symptoms during recovery period. It is anticipated that, with the increasing rate of infection in the general population, many participants will report a decline in running activities, followed by a recovery and return to training. Adequate understanding of the interplay between COVID-19 infection, training in running adults and early symptoms of poor recovery is required for creating of optimal recommendations and risk management of these patients. The short and medium-term adverse effects of COVID-19 infection on training capacity and cardiorespiratory complications are poorly understood.

OBJECTIVES: 1. to monitor the return to training following recovery from COVID 19 and the impact on subsequent physical activity, training performance and cardiorespiratory complications 2. to investigate the relationship between wellbeing, self-reported symptoms, heart rate variability, and subsequent participants illness/injury risk 3. to investigate the relationship between training load, wellbeing, and illness/injury risk 4. to perform subgroup analyses for sex, BMI, age groups, pre-existing health conditions, predominant type of exercise / running (eg. road, trail, fell, track,)

Selected Publications

School of Medicine

University of Nottingham
Medical School
Nottingham, NG7 2UH

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