Dr Chris Seenan
Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy
Department of Physiotherapy and Paramedicine
Chris Seenan holds the position of Senior Lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University. He came to GCU in 2010 when he assumed the role of Lecturer in Physiotherapy after completing his PhD at Queen Margaret University. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field, he was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2017.
Throughout his tenure in the School of Health and Life Sciences, Chris has amassed a wealth of experience and held various significant department roles including Programme Leader, International Lead, Business Development Lead and Postgraduate Programmes Lead. He has also assumed school-wide roles including AHP Lead for Post-Registration Programmes and Deputy Chair of the Research Ethics Committee. Through this experience, he has received recognition as a Senior Caledonian Scholar and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Over the past 13 years, Chris's research has been dedicated to exploring the lived experiences of individuals with long-term conditions, with a particular focus on Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD), Intermittent Claudication (IC), Diabetes, and Chronic Pain. His work has resulted in the development, evaluation, and implementation of complex interventions aimed at promoting optimal lifestyle management in non-communicable diseases. These interventions, primarily behaviour change strategies targeting increased physical activity, have the potential to make a significant impact on healthcare.
Within the Research Centre for Health (ReaCH), Chris is an active member of the Ageing Well Research Group and serves as the Leader of the Active Living Research Hub. His research has extended to include participatory methods, exploring how they can be used to collaboratively create, adapt, evaluate, and implement new healthcare interventions for individuals with long-term conditions. This work has led to over 30 research papers in internationally recognised journals and recent collaborative projects have investigated:
- The feasibility and acceptability of a complex intervention including pain management via transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) and structured, patient-centred education in people with PAD and IC.
- The current evidence base for behaviour change interventions to promote physical activity in people with PAD and IC.
- How an intersectional view of health inequities can help develop an understanding of the experience of coming to terms with chronic pain.
Chris’s current doctoral supervision includes projects on co-creating behaviour change interventions to support lifestyle modification in people with PAD and IC, investigating the feasibility of TENS and motivational interviewing to increase physical activity in PAD and IC, exploring acceptance of chronic pain, and developing public health educational resources to support lifestyle management in people undergoing screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm.
Chris teaches cardiovascular and respiratory practice, research methods, clinical reasoning, complex care and philosophy of research and practice on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes throughout the School of Health and Life Sciences.
Chris is an Elected Committee Member for the Education Specialist Interest Group of the British Pain Society and the Physiotherapy Pain Association and a member of the Health and Care Professions Council, Charter Society of Physiotherapy, Physiotherapy Research Society, Physiotherapy Pain Association, British Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Amputee Rehabilitation. He also leads the Council for Allied Health Professional Research (CAHPR) Scotland Consortium and is Co-Editor in Chief for Pain and Rehabilitation.
Research interests:
- Development, evaluation, and implementation of complex interventions to help people to manage long-term conditions and multimorbidity, particularly vascular, cardiovascular, and respiratory conditions and chronic pain.
- Using participatory methods to facilitate healthcare professionals and service users to create and deliver services and social innovation that addresses health inequities and promotes healthy ageing.
- Allied health professional education and development of research culture, capability and capacity.
Chris welcomes enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from around the world who are interested in PhD study.