As a profession, the health benefits and effectiveness of our interventions and the value we provide to the health care sector is proven in the research literature.

However, despite the strong scientific evidence base, we lacked a high-quality study examining both effectiveness and the economic benefit that physiotherapy provides.

The APA recently commissioned the Nous Group to undertake a landmark analysis of the value of a range of physiotherapy interventions. By doing so, we have, for the first time, built a robust picture of our high-level impacts and the value this provides to the health care sector.

The study found that treatments by physiotherapists deliver both health and economic benefits. Interventions are clinically effective and deliver net economic benefits, with quality of life improvements exceeding treatment costs.

This report is the missing link to demonstrate that all the Physiotherapy treatments investigated were clinically effective, and delivered net economic benefits, with improvements in the quality of life experienced by patients. This will form the foundation for our Policy Strategic plan for all stages of life in a patient's health journey.

Scott Willis, National President, APA

In an independent study, Nous Group calculated the impact of physiotherapy interventions.

Firstly, they calculated the benefits to patients. They measured the improvement in quality of life from peer-reviewed clinical trials, then used accepted, official methods to work out the value of better health in dollar terms.

Then they factored in costs, like the cost of delivering the service, the cost of the patient’s time and the avoided costs of other treatments.

The outcome of this work is that we can estimate a dollar value of the benefits of physiotherapy, so everyone can better understand its impact.

Read the report: Value of physiotherapy in Australia