University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust – Birmingham Heartlands Hospital

Dr Parasuraman joined the team in November 2017.  As a Neuromuscular consultant, he is involved in their day-to-day care, as well as being PI and SI for Neuromuscular trials at our site.

Our Neuromuscular clinic provides clinical care for about 400 children with various neuromuscular conditions and we care for around 100 children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Dr Parasuraman is a Council member of the British Myology Society and coordinates the BMS teaching day.

Dr. Zoya Alhaswani is consultant paediatrician with special interest in paediatric neuromuscular disorders.  She completed her training in paediatrics and paediatric neurodisability in the West Midlands, UK; during which she developed an interest in neuromuscular disorders.   She joined the Muscle team in 2018.  She is based at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital and Birmingham Children’s Hospital.  She is particularly interested in improving transition services for young people with neuromuscular conditions, in consultation with young people and their families. 

Zoya is working on increasing the capacity to participate in clinical trials in Duchenne muscular dystrophy and on developing the neuromuscular research programme at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital.

I work at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital as a Specialist Neuromuscular Physiotherapist in the Regional Paediatric Neuromuscular Clinic. I undertake assessments and support the local physiotherapy teams with the treatment of our patients.  I am involved in a number of national and international research studies for the treatment of DMD and SMA. 

I qualified as a Chartered Physiotherapist in 1992 and commenced work at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital as a junior physiotherapist undertaking a variety of rotations.  I have worked in paediatrics since 1996 and started specialising in paediatric neuromuscular conditions in 1998.  During this time the management of neuromuscular conditions has improved significantly, I have enjoyed being part of this development, and I am looking forward to the advances.

I graduated in 2001 and completed my junior rotations at Hammersmith and Charing Cross Hospital, London.  Here, I gained experience working with one of the leading neuromuscular services and it started my special interest in this field.  I then went on to specialise as a senior paediatric physiotherapist at Hammersmith hospital in 2003, which also involved working within the paediatric physiotherapy department at St Mary's Hospital in London, and gaining experience within both the community and acute paediatric physiotherapy. 

After traveling the world for a year, I then came back to England to work at Chelsea and Westminster hospital as a Senior Paediatric Physiotherapist before relocating to Birmingham.  Initially I worked for a year as a community physiotherapist, both within the special needs schools and the child development centres. I then moved to Birmingham Children’s Hospital where I worked for 9 years and specialised in the field of neurology, with a particular interest in neuromuscular.  In 2017, I was appointed to my current role at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, as a Paediatric Neuromuscular Physiotherapist.

As the Paediatric Research Nurse for DMD and SMA, based at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, part of the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, I am involved in the set-up, running and close down of clinical trials both commercial and academic for the DMD and SMA population. There are 3 Paediatric Research Nurses and a dedicated Data Manager that been providing high quality research for over 6 years. Our commercial trial profile has increased dramatically over the last 4 years and continues to do so. We pride ourselves on providing a welcoming and safe environment for the patients and their parents / caregivers. We are constantly striving to improve our research environment to ensure that the patients are comfortable and happy, with the aim of having a positive experience whilst enrolled on a research study. 

I graduated as a Paediatric Nurse in 2012 and worked in children’s Intensive care for over 7 years. Here I gained a particular interest in research and went onto work in their research team for 2 years before I started working for Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, part of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust as a Paediatric Research Nurse in 2019. I work on a variety of trials that cover several specialities but the majority of our studies are academic and commercial trials in the DMD and SMA population. We strive to provide high quality research within our team.