Innovations in healthcare: Celebrating being short-listed for the Physio Pitchfest final

Exciting new products and services to address unmet healthcare needs make it to the finals of the 2022 Physiotherapy Research Foundation Pitchfest and we are thrilled to be included. Our Aquatic Physiotherapy Digitally Delivered Arthritis “Kickstarter” Program is in the running for funding to improve it's impact. Best of luck to Emily Ramage who will be in the hot seat for us, presenting on the night.

Emily was interviewed for the Australian Physiotherapy Association Inmotion magazine and discussed the program further:

What led to the development of this program?

Physiotherapists have great education and exercise options to help people with arthritis. Our experience is that buoyancy in pool-based programs is a bonus when exercising with pain or weakness. However, we find that lots of people don’t have the confidence to continue exercising at their local pool after finishing an aquatic physiotherapy program. We wanted to help with video-guided sessions. We also wanted to give people who don’t access health services the option to exercise in a fitness setting at their local pool with an evidence-based exercise program designed specifically for them.

What impact do you hope it will make?

Aquatic physiotherapy has a strong evidence base and we want to promote this profile in the community. We hope to make physiotherapy-prescribed aquatic exercise an accessible, low-impact option for people with arthritis at any pool. We know from our program pilot that there were many enquiries from people with more complex health conditions. Our telehealth and online program wasn’t the right option for these people. They needed to see a physiotherapist or aquatic physiotherapist in person.

We see the Aquatic Physiotherapy Digitally Delivered Arthritis Program as being a good channel for referrals to make sure that everyone who is looking for an exercise option can find the right advice and to ensure a safe, holistic approach to managing chronic disease and persistent pain.

You can find out more about the other interesting and innovative products and services here. Good luck to all the finalists.

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