Dr Miranda Buhler is using her Otago Early and Mid-Career Accelerator grant funding to map where physiotherapists are across New Zealand and how well placed they are to meet the needs of those communities.
Knowing where physiotherapy service disparities are is the first part of addressing them, according to Dr Miranda Buhler.
Dr Miranda Buhler
A post-doctoral fellow in the University of Otago’s School of Physiotherapy, Miranda is using her Otago Early and Mid-Career Accelerator grant to map where physiotherapists are across New Zealand and how well placed they are to meet the needs of those communities.
“We found that Aotearoa New Zealand has a good number of physiotherapists, around 11.8 physios per 10,000 people, with only Scandinavian countries, Germany, Spain, Portugal and France delivering higher results than that.
“However, using a refined method of provider-to-population ratios that takes into account how far people have to travel, we identified that there were places where physiotherapists weren’t very accessible,” Miranda says.
“Ultimately, we put together a picture of maldistribution rather than a workforce shortage.”
During her research, Miranda was surprised to find that in the age of “big data” there were no comprehensive statistics for New Zealand’s physiotherapy workforce in New Zealand.
This led to six months of mahi to chart the distribution of where physiotherapists are across the country, and then integrating the information with census data to be able to thematically map Aotearoa.
The data showed that ethnicity and location impacts people’s access to physiotherapy care, with geographic accessibility being worse for Māori, particularly if they live in rural areas.
The work also identified specific locations of poor physiotherapy accessibility for Pacific peoples and people living in high socioeconomic deprivation areas.
“Being able to identify where inequities are is the first step to addressing them, and this work makes visible where those are and how to use the workforce we have to the best effect,” Miranda says.
The research highlights where funding is needed and where physiotherapists need to be encouraged to operate. Importantly, it also highlights the need for improved data collection and research to be established for New Zealand to have up-to-date information so that it can make better policy choices into the future, she says.
“As a researcher part-time and clinician at Dunedin hospital part-time, I’ve realised that people’s access to care makes a massive difference to their overall health and I’m so grateful to have received this grant funding so I can play my part in health care being more available to those most in need.”
Miranda’s first publication is available here.
The winners
Congratulations to the 2024 Division of Health Sciences Early Mid-Career Accelerator Grant winners:
- Senior Lecturer Aaron Stevens - Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, University of Otago, Wellington.
- Research Associate Professor Amanda Kvalsvig - Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington.
- Lecturer Claire Henry – Department of Surgery and Anaesthesia, University of Otago, Wellington.
- Postdoctoral Fellow Francesca Todd Rose – Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Biomedical Sciences.
- Senior Research Fellow Frederieke Sanne Petrović-van der Deen – Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington.
- Assistant Research Fellow George Randall – Department of Biochemistry, School of Biomedical Sciences.
- Research Fellow Indranil Basak – Department of Biochemistry, School of Biomedical Sciences.
- Senior Lecturer Kelly Tikao – Department of Nursing, University of Otago, Christchurch.
- Research Fellow Leah Smith – Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Biomedical Sciences.
- Assistant Research Fellow Lydia Le Gros – Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington.
- Research Fellow Mary Buchanan – Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington.
- Assistant Research Fellow Mau Te Rangimarie Clark – Māori/Indigenous Health Innovation, University of Otago, Christchurch.
- Postdoctoral Fellow Michael Perkinson – Department of Physiology, School of Biomedical Sciences.
- Senior Research Fellow Nick Bowden – Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Dunedin School of Medicine.
- Lecturer Rhiannon Jones – Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington.
- Senior Lecturer and Associate Dean Māori Faculty of Dentistry Samuel Carrington – Department of Oral Sciences, Dentistry.
- Research Fellow Sebastiaan Bierema – Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington.
- Postdoctoral Fellow Tapasya Pal - Department of Physiology, School of Biomedical Sciences.