Hosted by Gilbert Lorquet, CEO, NORTH Foundation on behalf of the Kolling Priority Research Area, Musculoskeletal, with presenters - Professor Manuela Ferreira, Dr Ashley Craig, Professor Lisa Harvey, Dr Annette Kifley and Professor Chris Little.
A showcase of current musculoskeletal research undertaken, presented by researchers from Back Pain, Murray Maxwell Biomechanics, Raymond Purves Bone and Joint and the John Walsh Centre for Rehabilitation Research.
There will be an opportunity for discussion, light refreshments to follow.
BIOS
Gilbert Lorquet - Gilbert leads the team and activities of the NORTH Foundation and is dedicated to significantly growing the Foundation so it can support more world class medical research and patient care services across the Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD). Gil's role is to provide a clear sense of direction for the Foundation, with overall executive responsibility for fundraising and day to day operations. He has a background in philanthropy and brings a wealth of experience to lead the NORTH Foundation team. Outside work, Gil is the Chair of Football NSW and is passionate about football.
Professor Manuela Ferreira - Professor Ferreira is Principal Research Fellow and NHMRC Investigator Fellow at the Kolling Institute, School of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney. She holds an NHMRC Investigator Fellowship and leads the clinical back pain research theme at The Kolling Institute, where she conducts research on the mechanisms, prognosis and management of back pain. She also co-chairs the Musculoskeletal Priority Research Area of the Kolling Institute. With +320 scientific publications, and +AUD28M in research funding, she is the 2nd highest ranked researcher in the world for ‘low back pain’ (of a total of 33,000 authors worldwide – Expertscape). She currently leads multiple randomised controlled trials of musculoskeletal interventions, including the first placebo randomised controlled trial of spinal surgery, an NHMRC-funded study that will establish the efficacy of decompressive surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis.
Dr Ashely Craig - Dr Craig is a senior researcher in the John Walsh Centre for Rehabilitation Research, Kolling Institute and the Professor of Rehabilitation Studies, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney. He is also a Senior Clinical Psychologist and Fellow of the College of Clinical Psychology, Australia.
Bio: Every year in Australia, traumatic injury costs the country billions of dollars in health care, lost productivity and personal loss and suffering. Professor Craig has been investigating traumatic injury and recovery for many years, for example, after a road crash or work related injury. The types of injuries he studies range from mild traumatic brain injury to severe injury such as spinal cord injury. His research has focused on how traumatic injury results in adverse psychophysiological impacts such as pain, fatigue, mental health disorder and cognitive impairment, the barriers to recovery from these conditions, and novel treatments that will enhance recovery.
Professor Lisa Harvey - Professor Harvey has a clinical background in physiotherapy and spinal cord injuries. Most of her research focuses on putting an evidence base to widely administered physiotherapy interventions.
Dr Annette Kifley - Dr Kifley is a research fellow with the John Walsh Centre for Rehabilitation Research, interested in translational research in rehabilitation and injury epidemiology. Current research areas include compensable injury, quality of life after injury and lived experience of disability, with projects in road traffic injury, spinal cord injury, hidden disability and frailty.
Professor Chris Little - Professor Little is director of the Raymond Purves Bone and Joint Research Labs at the Kolling Institute of Medical Research at Royal North Shore Hospital, Australia. Chris is a qualified Veterinarian with specialist surgery training and ACVS certification. He was awarded a PhD degree from the University of Sydney in 1996 for his studies of cartilage degradation in a sheep model of osteoarthritis (OA). Following a 5-year postdoctoral position at Cardiff University (UK), he was awarded an Arthritis Foundation of Australia Fellowship at the University of Melbourne. In 2004 he moved to his current position in the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Chris's research interests focus on defining the biochemical and molecular mechanisms of joint pathology in OA, and tendon and intervertebral disc degeneration, and are based on the belief that it is only though a better understanding the mechanisms that drive the initiation and progression of these diseases that new therapies can be developed. Chris is recognized internationally for his expertise in the development and use of animal models of bone and joint disease. He has served as an Associate Editor of Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, and a leader of the OARSI international initiative to establish standardised methods for evaluation of animal models of OA. Chris received the 2010 Barry Preston Award from the Matrix Biology Society of Australia and New Zealand, presented to an outstanding leader in the field.
