Nominees for the new award could be someone treating patients in acute hospital settings, someone rehabilitating post-COVID-19 survivors, someone who brought their private practice team through the difficult period or a researcher who diverted all their efforts towards evaluating physiotherapy during COVID-19.

Here are the winners from each state:

ACT—Kerry Boyd, Manager Acute Allied Health Physiotherapy, Division of Allied Health at Canberra Health Services (CHS)

Kerry was redeployed as a CHS Allied Health Clinical Lead for the COVID-19 response and worked in onboarding, inducting and training of allied health professions, assistants and technical officers.

She provided input  to the development of the COVID-19 clinical operations manual and supported managers across CHS to map skillsets of physiotherapy and allied health assistants, upskill and train CHS physiotherapy staff into ICU and acute care, and onboarded casual physiotherapy staff.

NSW—Meredith King, Senior Physiotherapist, Chronic Disease Community Rehabilitation Service (CDCRS), Pulmonary and Heart Failure, Macquarie Hospital, and Chair, APA Cardiorespiratory Group

Recognising the potential impending disaster of the first wave of COVID-19 and the implications for acute hospital workforce, particularly in the ICU, Meredith provided counselling and advocacy to the APA and the Chief Allied Health Officer in the NSW Ministry of Health.

She was key in developing a targeted training package to fast track staff mobilisation.

She was part of a team to review and repackage the Level 1 and 2 respiratory ICU physiotherapy course, ensuring the program was delivered with NSW Health and made available to physiotherapists in acute care and ICU.

QLD—Peter Thomas, Specialist Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapist, Physiotherapy Critical Care team, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital

Peter treated COVID-19 patients, led the physiotherapy department on managing them and guided restructuring and workforce planning to prepare for the pandemic.

He was lead author on the ‘Physiotherapy management for COVID-19 in the acute hospital setting: clinical practice recommendations’ international guidelines, published in the Journal of Physiotherapy in April 2020.

He also took part in developing the ‘Physiotherapy virtual cardiorespiratory ICU update’ online training course.

SA—Peter Tziavrangos, Managing Director, Move for Better Health and Chair, APA Business Group 2020, APA Board Member 2021

Peter communicated regularly to private practice owners about COVID-19 and its implications.

Peter did this through regular communications on social media, e-news and with the APA.

He attended meetings with key stakeholders, was available for calls and emails, and allayed fears in the business community.

TAS—Miriam Fletcher, Clarence Joint Therapy and Chair, Aquatic Group

Miriam worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to advocate for hydrotherapy pools to remain open and for clients to continue their care, initiating discussions with prominent aquatic physiotherapists on the reopening of hydrotherapy pools immediately on their closure.

She also drafted a letter to the Tasmanian Minister of Health, via the APA, advocating for the reopening of the North West Regional Hospital hydrotherapy pool.

VIC—Alicia Spittle, Professorial Research Fellow, University of Melbourne

Alicia supported clinicians, educators and researchers working with children with disabilities throughout the pandemic.

She and her team created an online education module for health professionals, and handouts for families, on how to use telehealth for early detection for infants at risk of developmental disabilities.

The handouts have been used globally, are now part of standard clinical care at several Australian hospitals, and have been translated into several languages.

WA—Gerald Yeo, Joondalup Health Campus, WA Health

Gerald played a key role in the provision of physiotherapy care to the passengers of the Artania cruise ship.

Gerald’s responsibilities included acute respiratory management in the COVID-19 ICU setting and on designated respiratory wards.

He was responsible for educating therapists on appropriate PPE, respiratory care, proning protocols and was involved in creating resources for Ramsay Health’s German-speaking cohort.