Ana Balañá is a physiotherapist specialized in the respiratory field and especially in neuromuscular patients with ALS. She has and extensive experience of almost 20 years in tertiary hospital centers, treating patients with ALS in multidisciplinary units. At the care level, she is in charge of the adaptation of the home ventilation devices and other secretions’ management devices as well as the education on this field for families and caregivers. She also performs the functional measurements of the respiratory muscles in these patients.
Regarding research in the field of neuromuscular disease, in 2012 the Spanish Society of Pulmonology awarded her a grant to study secretion drainage system for neuromuscular patients and since then the main research’s line has always been physiotherapy in neuromuscular patients. She is actually focusing on the study of respiratory muscle function, and also the study of the ability to cough and management of respiratory complications.