Rate My Professor Hayley Lewthwaite

Dr Hayley Lewthwaite serves as Senior Lecturer in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy within the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle. She is an accredited exercise physiologist registered with Exercise and Sports Science Australia and holds fellowships including research fellow at the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Treatable Traits and adjunct senior research fellow at the University of South Australia’s Innovation, IMPlementation And Clinical Translation. Lewthwaite obtained her PhD in Clinical Exercise Physiology from the University of South Australia in 2018. Prior roles encompass a postdoctoral position at McGill University’s Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education from 2018 to 2020, Lecturer at the University of Newcastle’s School of Environmental and Life Sciences from 2020 to 2023, and sessional academic appointments at the University of South Australia since 2016.

Dedicated to enhancing health outcomes for the 7.5 million Australians affected by chronic lung diseases such as asthma, COPD, and long COVID, her research investigates breathlessness—the primary symptom impacting quality of life. Employing cardiopulmonary exercise testing and wearable technologies, she explores physiological mechanisms during exercise and daily activities, develops improved assessment methods, and refines exercise prescriptions. Ongoing projects include wearable tech for symptom monitoring, vocal cord dysfunction in asthma via laryngoscopy during exercise, lung-specific CPET parameters for COPD exercise, and physical activity guidelines for long COVID. In teaching, she coordinates courses like Exercise for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Disease, Foundational Assessments and Interventions for Exercise Physiology, and Physical Activity and Exercise Across the Lifespan. Selected publications include “Treatable traits for long COVID” (Respirology, 2023), “Normative reference equations for breathlessness intensity during cardiopulmonary exercise testing” (Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 2023), “Understanding breathlessness in asthma” (European Respiratory Journal, 2024), and “Physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep in COPD guidelines: A systematic review” (Chronic Respiratory Disease, 2017). She supervises PhD, Masters, and Honours students.