First established in 1996, the Rehabilitation Teaching & Research Unit (RTRU) is a specialist group that focuses on inter-professionalism, distant education and research in rehabilitation. We value person-first disability and rehabilitation services; teamwork and collaboration; innovation; and evidence-based practice.
We provide postgraduate education at Certificate, Diploma, Masters, and PhD levels to people all over New Zealand and to international students. We also often have service users, doctors, nurses, rehabilitation managers, exercise physiologists, and others study with us too.
Housed within the Department of Medicine on the University of Otago's Wellington campus, our team consists of physicians, physiotherapists, an occupational therapist, and a clinical psychologist.
All of our staff are actively involved in rehabilitation research, typically publishing around 35–40 peer-review scientific paper each year. We have a wide range of research interests including self-management, outcome measurement, evidence synthesis, and digital technology in rehabilitation.