This case study shows the benefit of long- term physical rehabilitation in reducing activity limitations and enhancing participation levels in an individual with chronic traumatic brain injury-related mobility deficits.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability in children and young adults around the world (Thurman et al 1999), with an incidence ranging from 108 to 392 per 100,000 population (Abelson-Mitchell 2008).

Sydney-based physiotherapist Karl Schurr and his partner Annie McCluskey, an occupational therapist and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney, were sailing to Antarctica as passengers on the cruise ship Greg Mortimer when the nightmare began.

On 21 March, after only seven days on board, passengers started developing symptoms that we now recognise as COVID-19.

Physiotherapists are there when patients with COVID-19 need acute care, and they’re there when survivors need rehabilitation for ongoing symptoms. Zachary Attard and Meredith King answer some questions about physiotherapy management in the acute hospital and community settings, respectively. 

Acute ward management for COVID-19

What has your role been in the management of COVID-19?

I have acted as the physiotherapist on the COVID- dedicated ward at Austin Health in Melbourne.

For the next generation of physiotherapists to be able to graduate, and to allow them the best education they can have in private practice, requires an unprecedented approach, a blend of online and social- distanced consultations, mixed with less hands-on work and more clinical reasoning.

While working in the brain injury rehabilitation service at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Caitlyn Payne, APAM, identified a gap in service available for patients with acquired brain injury (ABI) who have higher levels of mobility.

The past 15 years have seen tremendous change in the musculoskeletal (MSK) medicine landscape. At the centre of this has been a reconceptualisation of how we understand various common non-traumatic clinical conditions, including non-specific low back pain, osteoarthritis and tendinopathy, to name a few.

Across allied health, including private physiotherapy clinics, there is not one clear method of digitally collecting standardised outcome measures from patients.