[11] The studies in AVERT focused on understanding how these early exercise-based interventions after stroke may alter bone, muscle and brain.
While AVERT was completed in 2016, Bernhardt continued to lead the extension of the trial, AVERT-DOSE (Determining Optimal early rehabilitation after Stroke).
AVERT-DOSE is recruiting over 2500 patients in six countries: Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, and India.
Bernhardt has been on the board of the World Stroke Organisation since July 2014 and Chair of the research committee of WSO since April 2017.
[2] In 2013, Bernhardt founded the Women in Science Parkville Precinct (WiSPP) Collective Impact initiative to address the gender inequity that she had witnessed in medical research.
[15] This initiative aims to improve the systems that limit the advancement of women and diversity of leadership across five of Melbourne's medical research institutes.