Throughout her 40-year career, Professor Lisa Harvey APAM has remained steadfast in her desire to improve the lives of those who have experienced a spinal cord injury (SCI). 

Even before beginning her studies in physiotherapy, she knew that she wanted to work in the area of SCI. ‘I was fascinated by movement,’ Lisa says. 

‘I was interested in how best to teach people with extensive paralysis to move again. I also wanted to accomplish something useful for the world in a concrete way.’ 

Two years after Lisa completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Sydney, an opportunity arose to start working in an SCI unit in Sydney and she took it. 

It was this role that ultimately inspired Lisa to teach. 

‘Within about a year, the senior physiotherapist working in SCI left and I was thrown in the deep end. 

I had a fairly meagre understanding of SCI so it was a very steep learning curve but that’s what sparked my interest in teaching. 

I knew what it was like to be thrown into an area that you don’t know anything about and to have that hunger for good resources and good teachers to learn from.’ 

Since those early days learning the ropes as an SCI physiotherapist, Lisa has been fortunate to receive ongoing funding for her academic position through icare and SIRA. 

She now dedicates a significant portion of her time to teaching, supervising and mentoring postgraduate students in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney. 

‘It is great as a teacher to teach people who want to learn—they enjoy it and I enjoy it. Plus you know that if you can up their skills, it will have an impact when they go back to treat people with SCI tomorrow.’ 

It is because of Lisa’s contribution to the field of SCI that in September 2024 she was awarded the International Spinal Cord Society’s (ISCoS) annual medal, which honours displays of excellence within the field. Lisa is the first allied health professional to receive the award. 

‘I suppose what makes me happiest about the award is that I feel as though I’m receiving it on behalf of physiotherapists everywhere who work in SCI. 

They are critical members of the rehabilitation team and work so hard for their patients but don’t often have the same opportunities to be recognised.’ 

Alongside her work as both a local and an international educator, Lisa is being recognised for developing a series of online modules designed to train physiotherapists to treat people with SCI as well as creating physiotherapyexercises.com—freely accessible exercise prescription software for clinicians. 

Lisa has also authored the textbook Management of spinal cord injuries: a guide for physiotherapists. 

These accomplishments and her tireless work ethic prompted Lisa’s colleagues, Dr Joanne Glinsky APAM and Dr Claire Boswell-Ruys, to nominate her for the award. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lisa is an active member of the SCI professional community. For some years she was editor-in-chief of Spinal Cord, the official journal of ISCoS. 

‘I’m now taking on chair of its scientific and research committee.’ 

In this role she oversees the scientific content of ISCoS’ annual conferences. 

‘The first time I went to an ISCoS conference was in the early 1990s. 

I remember it as such an exciting event. 

I never thought back then that one day in the future I would be overseeing these conferences.’ 

For Lisa, the chance to network and the opportunities for collaboration that these conferences offer SCI clinicians are invaluable. 

‘I enjoy being involved with international colleagues, who are all facing many different issues in terms of healthcare. 

I’ve learned a lot over the years about what is going on in different countries and the treatments physiotherapists from various countries use for SCI. 

The conferences provide opportunities to collaborate. And collaboration is really important for big initiatives. 

You can go it alone—and you might go much quicker—but you won’t get the same update unless everyone is involved. And of course, you need people giving different skills and perspectives.’ 

Collaboration has been a critical part of her latest international clinical trial, of which she is principal researcher. 

The $3.5 million trial involves 15 different sites, 220 participants, four different languages and a team of 260 people. 

‘This is the biggest trial that’s ever been conducted on a physio intervention for people with recent SCI. 

The only reason we could do it was because of all the relationships we’ve developed over many years at ISCoS.’ 

The trial investigates the effect of intensive motor training on patients within 10 weeks of SCI injury. 

‘We’re looking at how we can promote recovery and function straight after SCI by giving patients an extra 12 hours a week of a certain type of intensive physiotherapy for 10 weeks. 

The intervention is targeted at getting patients to maximally activate any muscles they can below the level of injury to promote recovery and function.’ 

In order to conduct the trial, the researchers had to go beyond Australia and rely on their international connections. 

‘There is no hospital in Australia that puts through hundreds of people with SCI (thank goodness). 

So it’s quite hard to recruit people with the specific kind of injury within the right timeframe. 

Even though every spinal unit around Australia was involved, that’s not enough by itself to get us a big enough sample so we had to go to Europe and use sites from over there.’ 

As the recipient of the medal, Lisa has been invited to deliver a plenary lecture at the ISCoS conference this October in Sweden. 

In her lecture she will discuss the results of the trial. 

‘By the time I give the lecture in October the trial will be finished and we will have the results. 

We will know whether this specific type of therapy works… For people with SCI that’s a really important question. 

They’re thinking, “I’ve had this severe injury; do I need to spend every hour of my day in physiotherapy sweating blood? Or can I relax a bit? Will it really make a difference?”’ 

That patient-focused approach has always been at the heart of Lisa’s work. ‘This trial isn’t about trying to big-note physiotherapy; it’s about the people with SCI. 

What’s the best way for them to be spending their precious time and how can we best optimise their outcomes?’