Dr Angelica Thompson-Butel
Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Behavioural and Health Sciences
Areas of expertise: stroke; upper limb rehabilitation
HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Provisional
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3176-210X
Phone: +61 2 9701 4739
Email: Angelica.ThompsonButel@acu.edu.au
Location: ACU Strathfield Campus
I am the National Course Coordinator of Exercise Physiology and a Lecturer in the Masters of Clinical Exercise Physiology and the Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science Programs at the Australian Catholic University in Strathfield. I coordinate Neurological Analysis, Prescription and Rehabilitation in the Masters program and Exercise, Health and Disease and Exercise Rehabilitation in the undergraduate program. As an academic I continue my research in stroke rehabilitation and currently I am involved in 3 clinical stroke trials investigating i) the role of exercise in enhancing upper-limb rehabilitation ii) different upper-limb rehabilitation dosages for patients with low motor function iii) and relationships between upper-limb motor-function and psychological effects post stroke.
I completed my undergraduate Bachelor degree in Exercise and Sport Science at Sydney University in 2007. In the following years I gained experience working with both clinical (neurological, cardiopulmonary and metabolic) and healthy populations. I completed my PhD in upper-limb stroke rehabilitation at Neuroscience Research Australia and worked as a senior rehabilitation officer with St Vincent’s Hospital Rehabilitation Research team from 2015 until I began at the Australian Catholic University in 2016.
I have been awarded >$100,000 in research funding with 16 publications, 22 presentations and was awarded the St Vincent’s Applied Medical Research Rising Star Award in 2015.
Select publications
- Varley, BJ, Shiner CT, Johnson L, McNulty PA, Thompson-Butel AG. Revisiting Poststroke upper limb stratification: Resilience in a larger cohort. Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair. 2021:35;280-289
- Rice V, Baker M, Thompson-Butel AG. Partnerships in collaborative care: Role of the Exercise Physiologist. In Living with a chronic illness & disability: Principles for nursing practice, 4th Edition. Churchill Livingstone Australia. 2021.
- Hesam-Shariati N, Trinh T, Thompson-Butel AG, Shiner CT, Redmond SJ, McNulty PA. Improved kinematics and motor control in a longitudinal study of a complex therapy movement in chronic stroke. IEEE Transactions of Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. 2019;27;682-691.
- Thompson-Butel AG, Shiner CT, McGhee J, Bailey BJ, Bou-Haidar P, McCorriston M, Faux SG. The role of personalised virtual reality in education for patient’s post stroke – a qualitative case series. Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases. 2019;28:450-457.
- Faux SG, Arora P, Shiner CT, Thompson-Butel AG, Klein LA. Rehabilitation and education are underutilized for mild stroke and TIA sufferers. Disability Rehabilitation. 2018;40:1480-1484.
- Faux M, Adams J, Wardle J, Thompson-Butel AG. Who teaches medical billing? A national cross-sectional survey of Australian medical education stakeholders. BMJ Open. 2018;8:e020712.
- Hesam-Shariati N, Trinh T, Thompson-Butel AG, Shiner CT, McNulty PA. A longitudinal electromyography study of complex movements in poststroke therapy. 1: Heterogenous changes despite consistent improvements in clinical assessments. Frontiers in Neurology. 2017;28:340.
- Hesam-Shariati N, Trinh T, Thompson-Butel AG, Shiner CT, McNulty PA. A longitudinal electromyography study of complex movements in poststroke therapy. 2: Changes in coordinated muscle activation. Frontiers in Neurology. 2017;20:277.
- Trinh T, Shiner CT, Thompson-Butel AG, McNulty PA. Targeted upper-limb Wii- based Movement Therapy also improves lower-limb muscle activation and functional movement in chronic stroke. Disability and Rehabilitation. 2017;39:1939-1949.
- Rice V, Baker M, Thompson-Butel AG. Partnerships in collaborative care: Role of the Exercise Physiologist. In Living with a chronic illness & disability: Principles for nursing practice, 3rd Edition. Elsevier Australia. 2017. (Invited book chapter).
- Shiner CT, Pierce KD, Thompson-Butel AG, Trinh T, Schofield PR and McNulty PA. The BDNF genotype interacts with motor-function to influence rehabilitation responsiveness poststroke. Frontiers in Neurology. 2016;7:69.
- Trinh T, Scheuer SE, Thompson-Butel AG, Shiner CT, McNulty PA. Cardiovascular fitness is improved post-stroke with upper-limb Wii-based Movement Therapy but not dose-matched Constraint Therapy. Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation. 2016;23:208-216
- McNulty PA, Thompson-Butel AG, Faux SG, Lin G, Katrak P, Harris L, Shiner CT. The efficacy of Wii-based Movement Therapy for upper-limb rehabilitation in the chronic poststroke period: a randomised controlled trial. International Journal of Stroke. 2015;10:1253-60
- McGhee J, Thompson-Butel AG, Faux SG, Bou-Haidar P, Bailey BJ. The Fantastic Voyage: an arts-led approach to 3D virtual reality visualization of clinical stroke data. Visual Information Communication and Interaction. 2015.
- Thompson-Butel AG, Lin G, Shiner CT, McNulty PA. Comparison of three tools to measure improvements in upper-limb function with post-stroke therapy. NeuroRehabilitation and Neural Repair. 2015;29:341-348.
- Thompson-Butel AG, Lin GG, Shiner CT, McNulty PA. Two common tests of dexterity can stratify upper-limb motor function after stroke. NeuroRehabilitation and Neural Repair. 2014;28:788-796
- Thompson-Butel AG, Scheuer SE, Trinh T, McNulty PA. Improving motor activation patterns after stroke with Wii-based Movement Therapy. Neuromethods: Stimulation and Inhibition of Neurons Pilowsky PM (Ed). Humana Press/Springer Science and Business: New York. 2013
- McNulty PA, Thompson-Butel AG, Shiner CT, Trinh T. Wii-based Movement Therapy benefits stroke patients with low and very low movement ability. Social Care and Neurodisability. 2013;4:114-123
Projects
- Personalised Exercise Prescription for Priming and Prevention Post-stroke
- The psychological effects of intensive upper-limb rehabilitation post-stroke
- The effects of different upper-limb rehabilitation dosages on stroke survivors with low motor function.
Accolades and awards
- Awarded Faculty of Health Sciences Project Grant, $8,834 in 2021, Australian Catholic University
- Awarded CRE Clinical Stipend of $20,000 in 2018, Centre of Research Excellence in Stroke Rehabilitation and Brain Recovery
- Successful AMR Translational Grant recipient of $25,000 to trial the Telehealth Transfer Package as an outpatient rehabilitation tool, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney
- Recipient of the Rising Star Award at St Vincent’s Research Symposium in 2015 (1 of 3)
- Recipient of the Caltex Award for best all-round student in academics, sport and community service, International Grammar School in 2003 (1 of 1)
- Awarded 3 competitive scholarships ($86,653) including a Special Domestic PhD Scholarship, UNSW and Top up Scholarship from Neuroscience Research Australia.
- Awarded 6 competitive travel grants and bursaries ($4,880 to attend international and national conferences including 3 bursary awards from the Stroke Society of Australasia, 1 travel grant from Smart Strokes and 1 scholarship from the Centre of Research Excellence Clinical Trials Research Workshop.
Appointments and affiliations
- Lecturer & National Course Coordinator, Masters of Clinical Exercise Physiology, Australian Catholic University, Strathfield 2016 - current
- Research Affiliate of the Centre of Research Excellence for Stroke Rehabilitation and Brain Recovery, Australia 2015 - current
International journal review panel
- Journal of Central Nervous System Disease x 5 :International journal review reference
Public engagement
- Stroke injury site and presentation, Neuromoves in services
- The art of recovery after stroke, Kaldor Public arts projects Nº30: Marina Abramovic, Sydney. Australia
- The importance of collaboration in research, UNSW Art and Design, Sydney, Australia
