Medico-Legal Experience

Karen Saunders is an experienced medico-legal expert witness who specialises in producing expert witness reports for cases related to all types of acquired brain injury (ie. stroke, traumatic brain injury, head injury, hypoxic and anoxic brain injury), complex neurological disability, Guillain barre syndrome, spinal cord injury and other neurological conditions.

Ms Saunders is a registered PhD doctoral research student at the Centre for Health Service Studies at the University of Kent and is undertaking research into the co-design of a resource of value with survivors of moderate to severe traumatic brain injury living in the community, along with other stakeholders.  This means that she can locate, access and incorporate relevant research literature and evidence for all types of neurological injury into the reports that she writes.

Whilst based in Kent, Ms Saunders can travel to undertake cases anywhere in the UK.  Ms Saunders has completed medico-legal training courses organised by the Medico-Legal Association of Chartered Physiotherapists and has worked as an NRC Medical Expert since 2022.

Clinical Experience

Ms Saunders is a specialist neuro-physiotherapist, who works as an advanced ‘hands on’ practitioner with an advanced level of knowledge, expertise and clinical skills.  She has acquired over 25 years clinical experience of working with people diagnosed with neurological conditions, within acute and rehabilitation settings, out-patient and community settings across both the NHS and private sector.

Ms Saunders is the Director of Da Vinci in Motion Educational, Research and Clinical Neuro-physiotherapy Services.  During her career, Ms Saunders has completed numerous specialist postgraduate training courses focused on the assessment and treatment of people diagnosed with neurological injuries and diseases.

Special Interests

As well as being a clinician and academic researcher, Ms Saunders is a clinical researcher and has been working on a diverse range of clinical and qualitative research studies within neuro-rehabilitation since 2015.  These clinical research studies include:

• Home-based EEG neurofeedback to reduce chronic neuropathic pain,
• exoskeleton assisted balance research,
• Long COVID research,
• botulinum toxin and spasticity research
• assistive technology research

Ms Saunders participates in advancing clinical practice, research and education by presenting research abstracts in World Congress NeuroRehabilitation conferences annually and has been invited to present two research abstracts, one of which is her PhD, at the 13th World Congress for Neurorehabilitation in Vancouver, Canada in May 2024.

Memberships of Professional Bodies

• The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
• Health and Care Professions Council

Further information

Download Ms Saunders’ CV to learn more about her research publications, qualifications and more.