In recent years, however, AI has rapidly evolved and has found applications in all kinds of sectors, driving change at a rapid pace and revolutionising the way we live and work. 

The field of healthcare, including physiotherapy, is no exception.

A groundbreaking AI transformation is already taking place in the realm of continuing professional development— from universities and training providers to APA courses and lectures. 

This review is one of the most important events happening in healthcare reform right now. 

Its purpose is to assess the opportunities that could be realised if all professions, including physiotherapy, could work to full scope of practice. 

In the contemporary workplace, many workers now value non-monetary benefits such as flexibility and a healthy workplace over the traditional, monetary-based incentives that have previously reigned supreme. 

This does not mean that financial benefits are irrelevant; rather, it emphasises the importance of employers adopting a nuanced approach. 

If the government and the health minister want true health reform, then allowing physiotherapists to refer to specialists and imaging is a simple way to reduce the Medicare spend, provide patients with a more efficient and straightforward journey and lower the cost of living for every Australian who needs to use the medical system.

As we mark International Women’s Day and National Close the Gap Day this month, Jane speaks about her career and achievements and her strong familial ties.

Direct physiotherapy referrals are an obvious reform that’s long overdue, explains APA General Manager, Policy and Government Relations Simon Tatz.

The role of the APA Policy and Government Relations team is to advocate for change. 

We always strive for ‘better’—better access to care, a better patient journey, better health outcomes, better use of the physiotherapy workforce and better use of physiotherapists’ skills and scope of practice.

Australia’s health system is overly complex and weighed down by an overlapping and competing federal–state divide. 

There is an understandable ‘conservatism’ in health and the unwieldy structure of the Medicare system, along with frustrating health bureaucracies and shared responsibilities between state and federal governments, also makes innovation difficult to achieve.

I can assure you that here at the APA, we won’t slow down in 2024, especially in our advocacy and in the political arena. 

We will continue to follow our strategic blueprint, working towards our vision of a future in which all Australians have access to quality physiotherapy.

A blinding headache like nothing Robert Vander Kraats APAM had ever known was the first sign that something was seriously wrong.