ProFaNE – Prevention of Falls Network Europe Thematic Network
Members of the project
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Professor Chris Todd | Principal investigator |
| Dr Dawn Skelton | Investigator |
| Dr Sarah Whitehead | Investigator |
| Steve Richardson | Investigator |
| Cindy Bramhall | Investigator |
ProFaNE is developing a taxonomy for research, best practice clinical guidelines, activity and balance methods and investigating psychological and motivational issues related to fall prevention. This is a major multidisciplinary thematic network funded by the EC. The network is coordinated by the School, with 25 collaborating centres in 13 European Countries. The aim is to bring together workers from around Europe to focus on a series of tasks required to develop multi-factorial prevention programmes aimed at reducing the incidence of falls and fractures amongst elderly people. The work of ProFaNE is practical. It will advance science by network development and collaboration, but it will also aim to change health care procedures to introduce best practice widely across Europe.
The ProFaNE website has been extremely successful, with over 600 members across the world with 20-30 new members registeristering every week. The main concern of the web site is with the organisation and presentation of falls prevention related data, that aims to raise awareness of current trends in falls and provide a comprehensive collection of links to other projects, papers, web sites and other resources related to falls prevention and people active within the falls prevention community. There is also a discussion board where members of the research community, clinicians, therapists, instructors and even older people themselves can discuss their thoughts, questions and ideas about falls issues.