Profile
Dr Hortensia Gimeno is a leading clinical academic occupational therapist in child health research. She currently holds an NIHR Advanced Fellowship (2024-2028) aiming to address critical gaps in childhood onset movement disorders research.
Hortensia is available for PhD and postdoctoral supervision in paediatric rehabilitation, childhood movement disorders including cerebral palsy, and child health applied research.
With 26 years of clinical experience, she has worked extensively in pediatric rehabilitation, bridging the gap between research and clinical care. She holds a PhD in Paediatric Neuro-Rehabilitation from King’s College London. Hortensia has published 42 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals, and has secured over £10.9 million in research funding.
Hortensia plays a strategic leadership role in national and international research networks, shaping the future of pediatric rehabilitation. She sits on the Strategic Research Group of the British Academy of Childhood Disability and serves on the Research & Development Board of the Royal College of Occupational Therapy. She is an Expert Member of the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine’s Dystonia Care Guidelines Pathway International Group.
Hortensia is passionate about supporting early-career researchers and developing evidence-based rehabilitation interventions that empower children and young people to achieve their functional goals.
Research
Research Interests:
Dr Hortensia Gimeno is a leading clinical academic occupational therapist specialising in the rehabilitation of children with movement disorders, including dystonia and dyskinetic cerebral palsy. Her research focuses on bridging the gap between evidence-based interventions and real-world clinical practice, ensuring that children and young people can participate fully in daily life activities. With a strong emphasis on cognitive strategy training and goal-oriented rehabilitation, she has pioneered the implementation of the Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) approach with complex movement disorders.
Her research explores novel methodologies that integrate cognitive and motor learning theories to enhance functional outcomes in children with complex movement disorders. By applying implementation science principles, she ensures that research is embedded in clinical practice, making interventions scalable, sustainable, and impactful for patients, families, and clinicians.
Her work directly informs NHS service delivery, clinical guidelines, and international best practice for rehabilitation in movement disorders. She has led and contributed to high-impact research that has shaped how rehabilitation is delivered following deep brain stimulation (DBS) and other neurosurgical interventions, ensuring that treatment extends beyond motor symptom reduction to include real-world functional improvements.
Hortensia’s own research focuses on:
- Cognitive based interventions & strategy training to improve motor and functional outcomes in across the lifespan
- Paediatric neurorehabilitation – Developing and evaluating interventions for children with movement disorders, dystonia, and dyskinetic cerebral palsy
- Measuring functional impact of pharmacological, surgical, and rehabilitation interventions
- Core Outcome Set Development
- Qualitative interview studies
- Development and Implementation of complex interventions
- Research capacity building for allied health professionals
Her research not only advances academic knowledge but also informs clinical guidelines, NHS service development, and international rehabilitation frameworks. She collaborates with leading academic institutions, NHS partners, and international research networks to drive forward the measurement of what matters to people with lived experience, and the integration of cognitive rehabilitation strategies into paediatric neurorehabilitation.
Publications
Key publications
Gimeno H and Polatajko H. The Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance Approach in childhood-onset disabilities: A narrative review and future directions. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2025, in press.
Fehlings D, Agnew B, Gimeno H, Harvey A, Himmelmann K, Lin J-P, et al. Pharmacological and neurosurgical management of cerebral palsy and dystonia: Clinical practice guideline update. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2024; 66: 1133–1147. https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.15921
Gimeno, H., Polatajko, H. J., Lin, J. P., Cornelius, V., & Brown, R. G. (2021). Cognitive Strategy Training in Childhood-Onset Movement Disorders: Replication Across Therapists. Frontiers in pediatrics, 8, 600337.
Gimeno, H., Brown, R. G., Lin, J. P., Cornelius, V., & Polatajko, H. J. (2019). Cognitive approach to rehabilitation in children with hyperkinetic movement disorders post-DBS. Neurology, 92(11), e1212.
Gimeno, H., & Lin, J. P. (2017). The International Classification of Functioning (ICF) to evaluate deep brain stimulation neuromodulation in childhood dystonia-hyperkinesia informs future clinical & research priorities in a multidisciplinary model of care. European journal of paediatric neurology : EJPN : official journal of the European Paediatric Neurology Society, 21(1), 147–167.
Supervision
Hortensia is available for PhD and postdoctoral supervision in paediatric rehabilitation, childhood movement disorders including cerebral palsy, and child health applied research.
