
Dr Dimitra Blana
Lecturer
- About
-
Room 1:173, Polwarth Building
Foresterhill
AB25 2ZDBiography
I received my B.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, in 2001. I went on to earn my M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, in 2003, and PhD from the same institute in 2008.
I am a member of the Aberdeen Centre for Health Data Science, and I develop and use computational tools with the aim to improve human health.
I am very active in public engagement with research. I aim to be an advocate for women in science, and encourage young people to consider careers in STEM.
I am increasingly interested in open and reproducible research, and as a Mozilla Open Leader I have developed an online platform for sharing code and expertise for clinical movement analysis.
- Research
-
Research Overview
I develop computational tools, design experiments and analyse data to address clinical needs in the area of human movement disorders.
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Applied Health Sciences, Engineering.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Research Specialisms
- Biomechanics
- Biomedical Engineering
- Health Sciences
- Bioinformatics
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Knowledge Exchange
- Founder of the Aberdeen branch of One HealthTech
- 2019 Soapbox Science Stoke-on-Trent organiser
- 2017 Soapbox Science participant (Leeds Arts & Science event)
- 2017 demonstrator at the Cheltenham Science Festival
- 2017 & 2018 Judge for the Association of British Science Writers Awards
- Editor of ScienceSeeker, 2016-2017
- STEM Ambassador
Funding and Grants
- NHS Grampian Endowment grant: Integrating real time surveillance and dynamic modelling of COVID-19 in Grampian to inform an adaptive healthcare response, 2020-2021
- Clinical movement analysis society (CMAS) small grant: A free online platform for sharing movement analysis code and resources, 2019
- EPSRC Healthcare Technologies grant: Personalised approach to restoration of arm function in people with high-level tetraplegia, 2018-2021
- Innovation Fund from the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine: Intelligent FES for restoring arm movement in people with tetraplegia, 2018
- RCUK Public Engagement with Research Catalysts: Co-Production and Creativity: ethos, typologies and innovation in public engagement practice, 2017 - 2018
- Keele Innovation Fund: Using digitally enhanced creative methods to engage the community with biomedical engineering research, 2017
- Orthopaedic Institute / Keele ACORN PhD studentship: Biomechanical modelling of toe walking gait to inform the prescription of ankle foot orthoses in children with cerebral palsy, 2016 - 2019
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH): Intracortical control of FES-restored arm and hand function in people with spinal cord injury, subcontract with Case Western Reserve University, 2015 - 2017
- National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIH): Prosthesis Control by Forward Dynamic Simulation of the Intact Biomedical System, subcontract with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, 2013 - 2015
- Teaching
-
Teaching Responsibilities
I am the coordinator of the MSc in Health Data Science.
I contribute to the courses PU5532 (Health Informatics) and EG555J (Research Methods for Bioengineers)
- Publications
-
Page 1 of 2 Results 1 to 10 of 16
Healthcare applications of single camera markerless motion capture: a scoping review
PeerJ, vol. 10, e13517Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13517
Briefing: Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on the clinically extremely vulnerable population
The Health Foundation. 32 pagesBooks and Reports: Other ReportsA comparative evaluation of time-delay, deep learning and echo state neural networks when used as simulated transhumeral prosthesis controllers
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/IJCNN48605.2020.9206772
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Model-based control of individual finger movements for prosthetic hand function
IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 612-620Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe Stabilizing Function of Superficial Shoulder Muscles Changes Between Single-Plane Elevation and Reaching Tasks
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 66, no. 2, pp. 564-572Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2018.2850522
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Study of the measurement and predictive validity of the Functional Movement Screen
BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, vol. 4, no. 1, e000357Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2018-000357
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/13113/1/Philip_BMJSEMOpen_Study_of_the_measurement_VOR.pdf
- [ONLINE] Correction
Real-time simulation of hand motion for prosthesis control
Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 540-549Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10255842.2016.1255943
Feasibility of using combined EMG and kinematic signals for prosthesis control: A simulation study using a virtual reality environment
Journal of electromyography and kinesiology : official journal of the International Society of Electrophysiological Kinesiology, vol. 29, pp. 21-27Contributions to Journals: ArticlesAn optimized proportional-derivative controller for the human upper extremity with gravity
Journal of Biomechanics, vol. 48, no. 13, pp. 3692-3700Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2015.08.016
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Real-Time Simulation of Three-Dimensional Shoulder Girdle and Arm Dynamics
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 61, no. 7, pp. 1947-1956Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2014.2309727