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.

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.

Virtual physiotherapy care may be just as powerful as a hospital bed for non-serious low back pain. At the APASC25 scientific conference in Adelaide, Dr Chathurani Sigera described how the Back@Home program in Sydney is helping patients recover in their own homes.