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Professor Katerina Hilari

Professor of Acquired Communication Disorders

School of Health & Medical Sciences

Contact details

Address

Professor Katerina Hilari M102 , Myddelton Street Building [M]
City St George's, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom

About

Overview

Katerina is a Professor of Acquired Communication Disorders. She is a Speech and Language Therapist with a background in Psychology and she specialises in aphasia and the impact of aphasia on people's lives. Katerina leads the Trials for Aphasia Panel of the Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists and is on the Board of Trustees of Aphasia Re-Connect. Katerina joined City, University of London in 2002. She previously worked at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

Background
Katerina studied Philosophy, Education and Psychology at the University of Athens before her post-graduate studies in Speech and Language Therapy in the UK. She worked in the NHS for St Mary's Hospital in Paddington and the Royal Free in North London. Her early research focused on the assessment of health-related quality of life in people with stroke and aphasia. She has developed a questionnaire, the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life scale (SAQOL-39) for use in clinical practice and research. Katerina's current research is exploring interventions to address the impact of aphasia and other communication disorders on people's well-being, social participation and quality of life.

Refereeing / Reviewing activities
Grant Panel member for The Stroke Association and grant proposal referee for the NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA); NIHR Research for Patient Benefit, and other funding bodies.

Previous Editor in Chief and current Advisory Editorial Board member of the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders.

Memberships of committees

  • Lead, Trials for Aphasia Panel, Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists (CATs), Jan 2020 – present

Memberships of professional organisations

  • Trustee, Aphasia Re-Connect, Board of Trustees, Jul 2018 – present
  • Member (RC0011164), Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
  • Member (SL05481), The Health Professions Council

Awards

  • Times Higher Education (2016) Shortlisted for The Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year
  • City, University of London (2015) Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Doctoral Supervision
  • City, University of London (2011) City University London Staff Prize for Excellence in Research
  • City, University of London (2010) Teaching Recognition Prize to the Division of Language and Communication Science Professional Studies Team

Research

Research overview

Katerina's research is focused on two main areas:

1. The long-term impact and psychosocial aspects of adult neurological conditions, with an emphasis on stroke and aphasia. This covers both exploration of this impact, with current projects looking at ways to support emotional and social well-being for people with aphasia, and also methodological issues, such as instrument development and adaptation for people with aphasia.

2. The effectiveness of speech and language therapy and other interventions on activities, participation and quality of life, in particular for people with aphasia.

Research areas

- Promoting psychosocial wellbeing in people with stroke and aphasia
- Effectiveness of aphasia therapy on activities, participation and quality of life
- Quality of life assessment in people with communication disabilities
- Stroke and aphasia outcomes research
- Development, psychometric testing and cultural adaptation of quality of life and patient reported outcome measures
- Social network and social support after stroke

Research students

Freya Sparks

Attendance: Feb 2021 – present, full-time

Thesis title: Advancing practice in voice rehabilitation with VITAL: a novel Voice Therapy Approach for people with Laryngectomy

Role: 1st Supervisor

Sally Morgan

Attendance: Oct 2020 – present, part-time

Thesis title: The SEEM study: Safe, Efficient and Enjoyable Mealtimes: Creating a toolkit for families of children who need assistance with eating and drinking - a multi-method investigation.

Role: 1st Supervisor

Niamh Devane

Attendance: Oct 2019 – Apr 2023, full-time

Thesis title: A feasibility randomised controlled trial of adapted Semantic Feature Analysis delivered in EVA Park.

Role: 1st Supervisor

Aparna Ramachandran

Attendance: Feb 2019 – present, full-time

Thesis title: SELF-REPORTED VOICE PROBLEMS AND COPING STYLES IN WESTERN CLASSICAL AND CARNATIC SINGERS: A MIXED METHODS STUDY

Role: 2nd Supervisor

Vasiliki Kladouchou

Attendance: Oct 2017 – May 2021, full-time

Thesis title: Psychosocial wellbeing in young adults with communication difficulties: Acquired versus Developmental Language Impairment

Role: 1st Supervisor

Further information: This project explores how language and cognitive factors affect psychosocial wellbeing in two understudied groups of young adults: those with diagnosed acquired language impairment/aphasia (ALI) and those with diagnosed developmental language impairment (DLI). The project aims to answer the following questions: 1) Is psychosocial wellbeing different between young adults with DLI and ALI, and is it poorer in comparison to typically developing young adults? 2) Do language and cognitive variables such as non-verbal ability and executive functioning contribute to predicting psychosocial outcomes in young adults with ALI and DLI? 3) Are potential group differences in psychosocial outcomes between young adults with ALI and DLI entirely accounted for by language and cognitive variables, or do they remain once such variables have been controlled?

Becky Moss

Attendance: Oct 2012 – Jun 2017

Thesis title: Investigating the impact of using assistive technologies on communication and social participation for people with aphasia: a mixed methods, case series study

Role: 1st Supervisor

Further information: - 1st supervisor
- 2nd supervisor: Dr Celia Woolf
- 3rd supervisor: Professor Jane Marshall

- This project delivered and evaluated a training programme in which ten people with aphasia were taught to use assistive technologies including voice recognition software and text-to-speech software, with the aim of improving their ability to communicate through written language. Training was one-to-one, for approximately one hour a week, for 10-15 weeks, and activities were tailored to address individual participants' goals such as correspondence through emails or letters.

Eva Efstratiadou

Attendance: Oct 2012 – Dec 2017

Thesis title: Investigation of different therapy approaches for aphasia in the Greek language

Role: 1st Supervisor

Further information: - 1st Supervisor
- 2nd supervisor: Dr Ilias Papathanasiou (external)

- This study investigates the effectiveness of speech and language therapy, delivered through different approaches for Greek speaking people with aphasia in Greece. Two different therapy approaches are examined: a) direct (one-to-one therapy) and b) combination therapy (one-to-one and group therapy). The study explores the outcomes of each therapy approach and which one, if any, has the greatest positive effects on quality of life.

Madeleine Pritchard

Attendance: Oct 2012 – Jul 2016

Thesis title: Discourse measures for describing coherence and language in aphasia

Role: 2nd Supervisor

Lara Galante

Attendance: Oct 2012 – May 2015, full-time

Thesis title: Cultural adaptation and psychometric testing of the Scenario Test for use in the UK, with insight on cognitive aspects of independent communication

Role: 1st Supervisor

Further information: - 1st supervisor
- 2nd supervisor: Dr Lucy Dipper

- This project was testing the psychometric properties of The Scenario Test for use in the UK. The Scenario Test was originally developed in The Netherlands and it is a functional communication test for people with aphasia that taps on all forms of communication, such as speech, gesture, drawing and writing. Furthermore, the project investigated the relationship between cognitive factors ('executive attention') and the ability to independently communicate using both verbal and non-verbal methods.

Ruth Deutsch

Attendance: Oct 2010 – Sep 2017, part-time

Thesis title: Reliability, Validity and Educational Use of the Cognitive Abilities Profile

Role: 2nd Supervisor

Further information: - 3rd supervisor
- 1st supervisor: Dr Nicola Botting

- Ruth is an educational psychologist and her PhD examines the reliability, validity and perceptions of the Cognitive Abilities Profile (CAP). The CAP is an educational consultation tool for identifying strengths and weaknesses in children with educational needs.

Celia Harding

Attendance: Oct 2008 – Oct 2015

Thesis title: Unmet needs of children with feeding difficulties

Role: 2nd Supervisor

Further information: - 2nd supervisor
- 1st supervisor: Dr Nicola Botting

- This project comprised a series of studies on early feeding and communication, including a randomised controlled trial on the effectiveness of non-nutritive sucking as a tool for enabling transition to full oral feeding with premature babies.

Sarah Northcott

Attendance: Feb 2006 – Jul 2013, part-time

Thesis title: Social support after a stroke

Role: 1st Supervisor

Further information: - 1st supervisor
- 2nd supervisor: Professor Jane Marshall
- External advisor: Dr Jane Ritchie

- This study looked at what happens to social networks and patterns of social support after stroke. It was a repeated-measures cohort study of people admitted to two NHS hospitals with stroke within a 15 month period, with questionnaires administered at 2 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months post stroke. 87 participants were recruited, with 82% follow up rate to 6 months. In-depth qualitative interviews were also carried out 8-15 months post stroke with 29 participants, exploring why changes were occurring and how they were perceived.

Publications

Publications by category

Book

  • Hilari, K. and Botting, N. (2011). The impact of communication disability across the lifespan. Hilari, K. and Botting, N. (Eds.), London: J&R Press. ISBN 978-1-907826-03-0.

Chapters (7)

  • Marshall, J., Hilari, K., Cruice, M. and Harrison, K. (2019). Communication. (pp. 153–175). Wiley. ISBN 978-1-119-11145-0.
  • Hilari, K. (2011). Aphasia. In Hilari, K. and Botting, N. (Eds.), The impact of communication disability across the lifespan. (pp. 147–160). London: J&R Press. ISBN 978-1-907826-03-0.
  • Hilari, K. and Cruice, M. (2011). Quality of life approach in aphasia. In Papathanasiou, I., Coppens, P. and Potagas, C. (Eds.), Aphasia and Related Neurogenic Communication Disorders Jones & Bartlett Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7637-7100-3.
  • Herman, R.C. and Morgan, G. (2010). Deafness, language & communication. In Botting, N. and Hilari, K. (Eds.), The Impact of Communication Disability Across the Lifespan London, England: J & R Press. ISBN 978-1-907826-03-0.
  • Marshal, J., Cruice, M. and Hilari, K. (2010). Communication. In Williams, J., Perry, L. and Watkins, C. (Eds.), Acute Stroke Nursing (pp. 184–204). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Marshall, J., Hilari, K., Cruice, M. and Harrison, K. Acute Stroke Nursing (second edition). In Williams, J., Perry, L. and Watkins, C. (Eds.), Acute Stroke Nursing Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Botting, N. and Hilari, K. Communication disability across the lifespan: the importance of documenting and sharing kholedge about wider impacts. In Hilari, K. and Botting, N. (Eds.), The impact of communication disability across the lifespan (pp. 1–5). London: J&R Press. ISBN 978-1-907826-03-0.

Conference papers and proceedings (21)

Journal articles (100)

Posters (6)

Report

Thesis/dissertation

Other (3)