Xiaolei Hu, MD, PhD

INTERNATIONAL NETWORKING GROUP LIAISON
Physiatrist, Neuroscientist, Department of NeuroRehabilitation
NUS University Hospital of Northern Sweden

Dr. Hu is a physician and neuroscientist in acquired brain injury (particularly stroke) care and rehabilitation. She is working as a resident with a research position at the Department of NeuroRehabilitation, University Hospital of Northern Sweden. Dr. Hu serves the Swedish Society of Rehabilitation Medicine as a member of the board. She is active in local, national and international organizations dealing with acquired brain injury and neurodisability.

Dr. Hu was a physician in China before she moved to Sweden as a guest researcher in the neuroscience field in 1995. Thereafter, she started her doctoral study on exploring pathphysiological mechanism after stroke in stroke models, with focusing on how to rescue dying neurons in the penumbra area after stroke.

After she finished her doctoral study in 2003, Dr. Hu moved her research direction into the rehabilitation field during her postdoc period. She proved that the stroke rats living in an enriched environment could improve not only motor but also cognitive recovery through neuroplasticity. Dr. Hu then renewed her medical education and became a physician in Sweden.

Her main areas of clinical and research interest include implementation of evidence-based motor and cognitive rehabilitations into the clinical praxis in acquired brain injury care and rehabilitation. Dr. Hu is a busy practicing clinician involving both early discharge and community-based neurorehabilitation, neuromedical assessment and management of persons with acquired brain injury, spinal cord injury and neurodisability. Meanwhile, Dr. Hu is teaching in the medical program and supervising several medical students at Umeå University.