Dr Alan Kacin
Associate Professor
Alan Kacin, PhD PT is an Associate Professor of physiotherapy specialising in exercise science and exercise therapy for musculoskeletal conditions. He has over 20 years of experience teaching and training physical therapy students and, for several years, graduate students in various fields of applied health sciences and medicine. He is one of the founders and since 2010 head of the physiotherapy laboratory. The main research focus of his laboratory is the safety and efficacy of blood flow restricted exercise on the morphology and performance of human skeletal muscles, especially the thigh muscles in patients with various knee pathologies. In addition to conducting several preclinical and clinical randomised trials in healthy humans and patients with different types of joint pathologies and surgeries, he has worked closely with industry to develop an innovative tourniquet system (Ischemic Trainer) to increase the safety and efficacy of blood flow-restricted resistance training in both sports and clinical settings. In collaboration with the National Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Slovenia, he organised and implemented an interdisciplinary pilot project "New clinical pathway for patient with low back pain", which introduced a triage physiotherapist and various other interdisciplinary approaches to the treatment of chronic low back pain at the primary level of healthcare in Slovenia. Under his leadership, a Slovenian version of the Keel STarT Back Tool for assessing the chronicity of patients with low back pain was adopted and introduced into clinical practice. He is (co-)author of over 50 scientific articles.