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About Kate
Dr. Kate N. Thomas is a Senior Lecturer and Vascular Technologist in the Department of Surgical Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago's Dunedin School of Medicine. She also holds the position of Co-director of Heart Otago. Thomas completed her PhD at the University of Otago, undertaking doctoral research in the Department of Surgical Sciences from 2009 to 2016, following an earlier role in the Department of Physiology from 2007 to 2008. Her research investigates cardiovascular and cerebrovascular responses to exercise and environmental stressors such as heat, cold, and hypoxia. Key areas include exercise physiology and prescription, heat therapy, peripheral arterial disease, venous disease, healthy brain ageing, and ultrasound. Thomas seeks to identify non-pharmaceutical lifestyle interventions to prevent or alleviate chronic conditions including dementia, osteoarthritis, and cardiovascular disease. She has contributed to studies showing heat therapy improves walking distance and reduces blood pressure in peripheral arterial disease patients comparably to supervised exercise.
With over 100 publications and more than 3,400 citations, Thomas has significantly influenced her field. Highly cited works include 'Elevation in cerebral blood flow velocity with aerobic fitness throughout healthy human ageing' (2008, 614 citations), 'Influence of changes in blood pressure on cerebral perfusion and oxygenation' (2010, 395 citations), 'Cerebral blood flow and cerebrovascular reactivity at rest and during sub-maximal exercise: effect of age and 12-week exercise training' (2013, 300 citations), and 'Effect of age on exercise-induced alterations in cognitive executive function: relationship to cerebral perfusion' (2012, 253 citations). Recent publications encompass 'Influence of spontaneous bursts of muscle sympathetic nerve activity on superficial femoral artery and femoral vein flow at rest and during slow deep breathing' (2026, American Journal of Physiology: Heart & Circulatory Physiology), 'Hemodynamic and vascular effects of different durations of lower-leg hot-water immersion' (2026, American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative & Comparative Physiology), and 'Heat therapy vs. supervised exercise therapy for peripheral arterial disease: a 12-wk randomized, controlled trial' (2019), which received the Best Research Article 2020 award from the American Journal of Physiology – Heart and Circulatory Physiology. Thomas was awarded the Health Research Council of New Zealand Emerging Researcher First Grant ($249,615) in 2018 for 'Optimisation of pre-operative cardiovascular fitness: The heat vs. HIIT study' and a Health Research South Start-Up Award.
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