Faculty Research Groups

The ground-breaking work conducted by our research teams has an enormous impact on the health and quality of life of our community: from increasing mobility and functional independence for spinal cord injury and stroke patients to developing the world’s first, evidence-based treatment for stuttering for pre-school children, a therapy now used throughout the world.

Our researchers have contributed significantly to the world’s understanding of the long-term side effects of common breast cancer treatments; improved the quality of life for sufferers of debilitating lower back pain, which affects 80 per cent of people sometime in their lives; and raised awareness of the needs and issues of people with a disability and their families, and led to improvements in professional practice and government policy in this area.

Here is a snapshot of our six Faculty Research Groups;

• AGEING AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT uses innovative, multi-disciplinary approaches to better understand people with disabilities across their lifespan, their families and carers, the physical and social environments in which they live, and the networks of social and human services available.
• DISABILITY AND COMMUNITY focuses on people with a disability participating in and being integrated into communities of their choice, by examining the impact of impairments on activity and life participation, and the development and efficacy of interventions for communication disorders across the lifespan.
• CLINICAL AND REHABILITATION SCIENCES conducts clinical research into the diagnosis, prevention, treatment and prognosis of a range of health conditions, including back pain, musculoskeletal injuries, breast cancer, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and airways clearance, and neurological rehabilitation.
• EXERCISE, HEALTH AND PERFORMANCE focuses on research in the area of human physical performance, which includes the physical functions required for maintaining the human body or for adapting it to exercise. This may be recovery from injury or disease, maximising sporting performance, matching a workspace to a person’s physical capacity, or in the achievement of a comfortable fitness level. The associated disciplines are exercise physiology, biomechanics, nutrition and motor control.
• MEDICAL IMAGING AND RADIATION SCIENCES conducts research into the development and use of medical imaging. Areas include the development of high resolution instruments and quantitative data analysis methods for in vivo imaging; the use of imaging for the study of human diseases and the use of molecular in vivo imaging to achieve optimal treatment for diseases.
• HEALTH INFORMATICS AND STATISTICS focuses on investigating how communication and use of information within the health system can be improved to reduce errors, and improve clinical decision-making, health care delivery and patient outcomes.