Andric Lu APAM’s career is a shining example of what can happen when physiotherapists step outside the treatment room and into the systems that shape healthcare in this country.

From the outset, Andric’s entry into physiotherapy was driven by a desire to balance intellectual challenges with meaningful impact. 

‘I’ve always wanted to work in a profession where I can help people.’ 

In physiotherapy, he found the balance he craved as well as a pathway into rural and remote healthcare that would ultimately shape his entire career.

A placement in Cooktown, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, during his undergraduate degree proved pivotal for Andric. 

The autonomy, the diversity and the close-knit community environment drew him in and he has worked in rural and remote settings ever since. 

‘There was a single physio who covered that area. We would go out on home visits but also get to work in the hospital. 

'The breadth of exposure was very rewarding.’

It was within this environment that Andric began to see the opportunities that lie outside a purely clinical role. 

Working as a generalist in under-resourced health services meant stepping beyond traditional physiotherapy responsibilities.

Without the layers of management or discipline-specific leadership typical of a metropolitan service, Andric found himself engaging in aspects of healthcare that many physiotherapists never formally encounter – service planning, data analysis and governance.

‘From a service planning and evaluation perspective, you’re all there is [for physiotherapy]. 

'I got to learn a lot by playing various roles while identifying the potential gaps within the system that physios may play a part in.’

Rather than a single moment shifting his career trajectory, it was a gradual realisation that his impact could extend beyond the patients he saw. 

‘If I can take a step back and influence the system that my colleagues work in, then my reach increases.’

This thinking was reinforced by what he witnessed firsthand in rural services – particularly the fragility of what he calls the ‘person-dependent’ model of care. 

In small teams, services often evolved out of individual clinicians’ interests and expertise. 

Andric Lu.

‘One person was interested in working in the emergency department; someone else was interested in vestibular and another in women’s health. 

'All of these specialised services were set up and then everyone left.’

The result was predictable. ‘It’s hard to keep a service running when it’s dependent on that person’s specialised interests. In the end it wasn’t sustainable.’ 

For Andric, this highlighted a fundamental misalignment between service design and community need. 

‘Why are we creating services based on our own interests when we’re here to serve the communities?’ 

That question became a driving force behind his move into non-clinical roles.

Early in his career, Andric became involved in organisational committees and improvement projects focused on patient safety, quality and service performance. 

‘Even in my first year working as a physio, I was pulled into different committee roles.’ 

These experiences provided Andric with insight into how decisions made at higher levels influenced care on the front line. 

‘It was clear that decisions made upstream cascade down and impact what happens at the bedside.’

Andric’s first formal step away from his clinical work came more than five years ago in a quality management role – a position that expanded his understanding of the health system beyond physiotherapy. 

The learning curve was steep. 

‘It was hard to balance a compliance lens with an improvement lens but yeah, it was enjoyable.’

From there, Andric’s career progressed through clinical governance, corporate governance and service management before arriving at his current role in health service planning. 

His work focuses on determining what a health service needs in terms of infrastructure, workforce and models of care before architects and designers translate those requirements into physical spaces in new hospitals and healthcare centres.

Ultimately, Andric’s role is about aligning healthcare delivery with population needs and projections. 

‘It’s focused on demand as opposed to growing historical services. 

'Aiming to match population and community need with the right mix of services, workforce, infrastructure and models of care.’

This involves complex data analysis, stakeholder consultation and strategic planning. 

Population growth, disease burden, social disadvantage and service utilisation all feed into forecasting models that attempt to predict future demand. 

‘If you agree with the inputs, then you have to agree with the outputs,’ Andric says, highlighting the challenges of working with imperfect data in rapidly changing environments.

Those challenges are particularly evident in regional areas experiencing population growth. 

‘The development the Sunshine Coast saw 10 years ago was happening to the Wide Bay region now.’ 

The lag between census data and real-time population changes can make planning difficult, yet decisions must still be made.

One of the most significant projects Andric has been working on is part of the planning of a new greenfield hospital in Bundaberg,
regional Queensland. 

His role was to determine the scale and scope of services required – including the number of beds, clinical spaces and support services – to inform the design of the hospital. 

‘My role was to use the data to prove that this is actually what we need.’

The process is far from straightforward. Political considerations, funding constraints and shifting government priorities all influence outcomes. 

Negotiating these competing pressures requires technical expertise and strong communication and advocacy skills. 

It is here that Andric believes his rural physiotherapy background has been particularly valuable. 

‘The breadth of scope that I had when I was a generalist helped me understand what everyone did and made it easier to communicate with different clinicians.’ 

While planners are not subject matter experts in every clinical area, they must engage with those who are. ‘We’re planning for chemo chairs and operating theatres – they’re all things that are not in my scope.’

Andric says that because he was never a specialist in anything while practising as a rural generalist, he got comfortable asking questions. 

Along with his ability to understand clinical risk, this has been critical. 

Equally important is the consumer-focused perspective ingrained during his early clinical work. 

‘Having that consumer focus and making sure that discussions are held and decisions made with the consumer’s interest in mind is important.’

This systems-level thinking is, in many ways, a natural extension of physiotherapy training. 

‘Physios are trained to assess clinical risk, function and social interaction. 

'That translates well into systems and service planning.’ 

Combined with experience across different clinical settings, it allows him to bridge the gap between frontline clinicians and executive decision-makers.

Despite being more than five years removed from clinical practice, Andric acknowledges that the shift was not without its challenges. 

‘I miss the really complex cases. The problem-solving was great.’ 

The trade-off has been the chance to influence at scale. That realisation was cemented for Andric when he was tasked with writing a four-year strategic plan for his hospital and health service. 

‘What I write carries a lot of responsibility because that’s what everyone else will be referring back to.’

Scale of this magnitude distinguishes planning and governance roles from traditional clinical pathways. 

Yet, as Andric points out, these roles are rarely discussed within physiotherapy. While non-clinical pathways certainly do exist, they are often perceived as separate from the profession. 

‘My mindset was very much “You’re either clinical or non-clinical and once you go non-clinical, you can’t go back.”’

The reality, Andric says, is that the boundaries are more fluid. 

With ongoing reform and infrastructure investment across the health system, opportunities in planning, policy, quality and change management are expanding. 

‘We’re in a rare era where new infrastructure is popping up everywhere that needs planning, model of care development, change management… I think it’s a great time to explore that.’

For physiotherapists considering such a pathway, Andric emphasises the importance of mindset over specific experience. 

‘It’s a lens of curiosity, almost like a thirst and a hunger to improve care pathways.’ 

Skills such as systems thinking, communication and understanding one’s own scope are highly transferable. 

Early career exposure can also play a role, he believes. 

‘Look at different committees that you can sit on or projects that you can contribute to, where you’re interacting with medical and nursing. Broader thinking is important.’ 

These experiences can provide insight into how health systems function and where physiotherapists fit in. 

‘Clinical practice is incredibly important but it’s not the only way to make a meaningful contribution.’

In a health system facing increasing demands, workforce pressures and resource constraints, that broader perspective is becoming more critical, Andric says. 

For physiotherapists willing to look beyond traditional roles, Andric’s career demonstrates that the profession’s impact is not confined to the treatment room but can extend all the way to the design of systems in which care is delivered.