Advanced practice physiotherapy is changing how patients access specialist assessment, diagnosis and care, from hospital emergency departments to specialist services. As these roles become more established across Australia, a national competency framework and emerging titling pathway are creating opportunities to recognise clinical expertise, strengthen career progression and rethink how physiotherapists can contribute to health service delivery.

For patients presenting to hospital emergency departments with musculoskeletal conditions, the wait for assessment can be long. New findings from the RESHAP-ED trial provide strong evidence that putting physiotherapists at the front of the care pathway can improve patient flow, satisfaction and health service efficiencies without compromising clinical outcomes or safety and is cost-effective.

Reducing low-value care for low back pain remains one of the biggest challenges facing hospital emergency departments. A team of researchers including physiotherapist Associate Professor Adrian Traeger is offering important insights into why changing clinician and patient behaviour is more complex than it first appears.

For physiotherapist and researcher Associate Professor Claire Baldwin, helping older adults to move more in hospital is at the centre of a much bigger public health challenge. Through research focused on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and hospital-associated functional decline, Claire is working to improve outcomes for some of the health system’s most vulnerable patients.

When the Spinal Virtual Clinic run out of Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia first opened, it managed a handful of patients annually. Fast-forward a decade and the clinic now oversees more than 1000 patients each year, with physiotherapy at the forefront.

From the wrestling mat to the treatment room, Kris Grzywniak’s path into physiotherapy has been anything but conventional. A former Polish national team wrestler and coach, now working in private practice, Kris brings a rare blend of lived athletic insight, coaching skills and clinical reasoning to every patient.

Functional decline in older adults in hospital is common, consequential and largely preventable. Dr Julie Adsett outlines how targeted, system-wide approaches, supported by mobility quality indicators, can help hospitals measure, understand and improve patient activity.

For physiotherapists working in Australia’s public health system, the career pathway can often feel clearly defined: develop clinical expertise, specialise or move into advanced practice or management and progress within the boundaries of the profession. But for some, that pathway broadens into something less visible – and more influential.

Physiotherapy careers often run in families but rarely across three generations working in different eras of the profession. For Jill Morrison, her daughter Shan Morrison and grandson Xander Clausen, physiotherapy is not just a career path – it is a shared language that has evolved across six decades of healthcare.