Physiotherapy management of people with Osteoarthritis

Overview

Investigating management of people with osteoarthritis is the focus of Dr Chapple’s research, with emphasis on manual therapy and other physiotherapy approaches. For clinicians and patients, having a range of treatment options available is important as osteoarthritis is a chronic condition, and people’s needs change over time.

Enquiries for PhD study are invited from any eligible students interested in manual therapy for people with osteoarthritis (including mechanisms of manual therapy), or combined treatment (advice, pain management, medication, exercise therapy) approaches for managing osteoarthritis. Also aspects of treatment delivery such as dose or frequency of treatment or models of care.

Recent PhD projects supervised by Dr Chapple include Exergaming for the management of knee osteoarthritis (Student: Dr Donald Manlapaz), and Splinting for the management of thumb osteoarthritis (Student: Dr Miranda Buhler).

Useful information

• Graduate research at the University of Otago
• Scholarships at the University of Otago