2021 School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Postgraduate Research Conference

The School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS) at the University of Queensland (UQ) is hosting our annual Postgraduate Research Conference.

The Conference is a free event designed to showcase the recent research undertaken by Higher Degree Research and Honours students in four allied health disciplines: Audiology, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, and Speech Pathology.

This year, the theme of the conference is Out of the Ivory Tower – Broadening our perspectives and thinking about the big picture in SHRS research. We aim to encourage researchers to think about their research impact beyond publication and to focus on “why they do what they do?”, “how they ensure knowledge translation?” and “what are the clinical implications of their research?”

Our program has been developed using an interdisciplinary model under the SHRS key research themes:

Communication
Paediatrics: Healthy Start to Life
Musculoskeletal: Movement in Health
Neurorehabilitation and Ageing
Professional Education
Telerehabilitation
Knowledge Translation and Impact

The 2021 SHRS Postgraduate Research Conference “Out of the Ivory Tower” will be held on Thursday 2 December 2021 from 8.30am-4pm, at the new ModWest teaching facility on the St Lucia campus.

This year’s conference will feature:

Oral presentations
Poster presentation
A live face-to-face keynote-speaker and live online interstate keynote-speakers (stay tuned for information on the not-to-be-missed keynote speakers)
Expert-panel session with consumers, clinicians, and academic advisors
Meeting-and-greet drinks at a venue on-campus (4pm, Venue TBC)

There will be several awards for outstanding posters and presentations, as well as door prizes and other surprises for the members of the audience.

Come join us for this wonderful opportunity to gain advanced insights into the SHRS research. Meet researchers from various disciplines as we all step out of the ivory tower and beyond the scientific publication to make a positive and meaningful difference to the clinical world.

Keynote speakers

Professor Victoria Palmer, University of Melbourne

Victoria is a Professor of Primary Care Mental Health & Co-Design. She is the Director of the ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation funded by the NHMRC for which she was lead CIA.

Victoria is located in the Department of General Practice at The University of Melbourne. She completed her PhD in Applied Ethics in 2007 and worked in community development, domestic violence, and disability support services prior to completion. Over her 13-year research active career she has completed some 30 research projects using qualitative research designs, visual methods and mixed method approaches. Victoria led the first trial of a mental health experience co-design quality improvement method in community mental health and she leads the only primary care randomised controlled trial to improve heart health with people who live with severe mental illness testing a coproduced intervention funded by NHMRC.

Vicoria established the Co-Design Living Lab Program in 2017 to embed lived-experience informed approaches in end-to-end research design to translation. This has a member base of some 2000+ people who experience mental illness or care for someone living with mental illness.

Dr Merril Turpin, The University of Queensland

Dr Turpin’s research centres on the clinical/professional reasoning of occupational therapists across the spectrum of experience from new graduates to experts, as well as the subjective experiences of people with disabilities. She specialises in the use of qualitative research methods and uses a variety of qualitative research methods in her own research, as well as advising others on these research methods.

Dr. Turpin has written books and book chapters on occupational therapy models of practice, evidence-based practice, and clinical reasoning, as well as publications on various aspects of people's experience. Dr. Turpin has been a teaching and research academic at The University of Queensland since 1992. The connection between theory and practice is central to her research and teaching. As occupational therapists attend to both thinking and experience, they need to use rigorous thinking and a deep understanding of human experience in their practice.

Dr Tamika Heiden, Research Impact Academy

Dr Tamika Heiden is the Principal of the Research Impact Academy. She has more than a decade of career experience as a researcher and research manager in the fields of health, sport and medical research that began with a sports science degree and a PhD in Biomechanics. She has a certifications in Knowledge Translation from the University of Toronto, and from the International School on Research Impact. Tamika is an honorary research fellow at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Victoria, an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia, sits on the scientific committee for the Medical Research Foundation at Royal Perth Hospital, and has a formal partnership with SickKids Hospital in Toronto.

Tamika’s national and international work brings together researchers and research users to share, create and translate knowledge for the betterment of society. She has worked with many government and non-government organisations to facilitate high-level overviews and strategic thinking, particularly relevant to the Australian research funding landscape where she gave evidence to the Senate Committee enquiry for the Medical Research Future Fund.

Tamika won the 2018 award for Excellence in Knowledge Translation from the SickKids Learning Institute in Toronto and the Award for Innovation from the Institute for Knowledge Mobilization. Tamika has shared her knowledge with a variety of audiences at conferences and symposiums, run workshops, been published in numerous professional and academic journals, and been involved in the development of Knowledge Translation strategies at the organisational and project levels.

Registration

Please register for the conference via the link below. We look forward to seeing you on the 2 December 2021.

Conference program

Download the conference program

Abstract submissions have now closed. For any enquires please email pgrc12@uq.edu.au%20.

Social media

You are encouraged to promote, share and engage with conference activities via social media.

On Twitter and all other platforms, please tag #SHRSPGRC and @uqshrs_pgrc.

Get in touch

To contact a member of the PGRC Committee, please email pgrc12@uq.edu.au