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January - March 2020

Our researchers have been busy throughout early 2020 while the recent unexpected Covid-19 lock-down presented a number of unforeseen challenges.

Staffing changes

Farewell to Associate Professor Hilda Mulligan

A huge thank you and farewell to Associate Professor Hilda Mulligan who retired from the School right in the middle of lock-down on the April 1 2020.  Hilda has made a huge contribution to CHARR research.

Welcome to Dr Ally Calder

Ally Calder started her role as a lecturer earlier in 2020.  She completed her PhD in 2019 and has previously worked for the School as a professional practice fellow. Ally is based in our Christchurch research hub.

In the news

Two of our research studies made the news in the past few months;

  • 'Southern Men wanted to unlock health mystery'

Read on

  • 'Best practice treatments for chronic pain overlooked as media focus on opioids and medicinal cannabis'

Read the full article

Research during Covid-19 lock-down

As the Covid-19 situation became more serious we needed to rethink how to undertake some of our research.

Taking our research online

Shoes and heart image 2Emily Gray's PhD research study aims to develop a programme that prepares and supports people who have undergone heart bypass (otherwise known as coronary artery bypass graft) surgery to engage in physical activity during the early recovery period following their discharge from hospital.

Emily was planning on personal visits but has now taken her interviews online. People can take part by phone or Zoom meetings.

Emily's project is detailed here

Diabetes Community Exercise Programme research

Just as lock-down hit follow-up assessments for our HRC funded research trail came due.  Thanks to the intensive efforts of our research assessors we took the programme online and managed to complete more of our assessments by phone.

Some of our participants were still taking part in our exercise class and Clinical Physio lead, Chris Higgs and his team were able to continue working with participants, creating an online support system and providing exercise routines to help keep all them moving during stages 4 and 3 of the lock-down.

Shoulder 360 Symposium

Associate Professor Gisela Sole and her team ran the symposium 'Shoulder360: Navigating between clinical practice and research'  earlier this year. About 60 clinicians attended in person and another 20 joined us online. We were delighted to welcome two international research visitors, A/P Craig Wassinger, East Tennessee State Uni, USA and A/P Jean-Sebastien Roy, Laval University, Canada.

Associate Professor Gisela Sole organised the 'Shoulder360: Navigating between clinical practice and research' symposium in January. Around 80 took part in Dunedin and online, and we were delighted to welcome international research visitors Craig Wassinger from East Tennessee State University in the US and Jean-Sebastien Roy from Laval University in Canada to the School.

Read more about the Shoulder360 symposium

News from our Graduate Research

We welcomed four new PhD candidates to date in 2020

  • Jerin Mathew successfully upgraded from his Master’s thesis.
  • Mark Overton who officially started on March 1 but arrived in Dunedin on Monday May ? - a very memorable day indeed.
  • Sarah Walker started in February. Sarah is a recipient of an HRC clinical training fellowship.
  • And welcome Lizz Carrington who started in February, and also joined the School staff in 2019.

If you are interested in PhD or Masters by Research study contact physiophd@otago.ac.nz  for study options and various scholarship opportunities on offer.

Further information

To learn more about our research please contact:

Research Coordinator: donna.keen@otago.ac.nz or CHARR Director: daniel.ribeiro@otago.ac.nz

Follow us on twitter @OtagoCHARR

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