Manchester Metropolitan University’s Impact on Transforming Health
Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) has been a vital partner in the UK’s healthcare ecosystem for 200 years. The university’s research and training programs are focused on helping people lead healthier and longer lives, as well as addressing the challenges of an aging population and training the next generation of healthcare professionals.
Helping People to Live Better
MMU’s research in the areas of mobility, social connection, dementia, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal diseases, as well as chronic fatigue, is helping people to live better whatever their age and stay out of the health system.
For example, research into how older age athletes’ muscles stay stronger is helping to develop interventions for the wider population. Even if you only take up exercise later in life, you can add 15 quality-of-life years, meaning you’re better able to climb the stairs, go to the shops or meet friends.
Overcoming Obstacles
MMU’s MRI scanner is helping researchers to understand healthy ageing as part of the new ACTIVE lab. This lab will support new equipment and a biomedical imaging laboratory that will enhance the University’s ongoing research into human movement, particularly how it is affected in people with dementia, diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease.
Real-World Impacts
MMU has been the exclusive NHS partner to train reproductive scientists since 2013. If you’ve had IVF treatment, there’s a good chance it will have been helped by a Manchester Met-trained scientist.
Studies on the impact of diabetes are helping to develop interventions to stop it from progressing and affecting people’s mobility. University research has been published by Health Innovation Manchester to help identify populations at risk of Type 2 diabetes and what changes can be put in motion to stop it.
Cutting-edge studies into Parkinson’s disease – conducted with Salford Royal Hospital, Parkinson’s UK, and the Walton Centre in Liverpool – are working to understand how different regions of the brain affect people’s balance and walking, and what solutions can be developed to help people better manage day-to-day life with the condition.
Substantial Contribution
Each year around 400 registered nurses graduate in adult nursing and mental health nursing having completed graduate and postgraduate pre-registration programmes at the University. Nursing associates also graduate, whose roles are to support registered nurses.
Transforming Health
So, while the world looks very different to when the NHS began on that July day in 1948, it’s clear that MMU is ready to rise up to the healthcare challenges of today’s world – helping people in Greater Manchester to live happier, healthier and longer lives.
