A leading clinical physiotherapist and La Trobe alumna, Dr Leonie Oldmeadow has had a significant impact on the delivery of healthcare.
Dr Oldmeadow first graduated with a degree in physiotherapy in 1969 from the Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences in Melbourne. She went on to practice as a clinical physiotherapist in a range of hospital and private practice settings in orthopaedic physiotherapy.
In 2001, she enrolled in La Trobe’s first Clinical Doctorate of Physiotherapy program and developed a tool to predict the risk of requiring inpatient rehabilitation for patients undergoing elective orthopaedic surgery.
Her Risk Assessment and Prediction Tool has had a direct impact on reducing inpatient length of stay, improving patient wellbeing, and reducing healthcare costs not only in Australia but also internationally.
Since then, Dr Oldmeadow has made several contributions to clinical physiotherapy research including studies on the role of experienced physiotherapists in hospital orthopaedic outpatient care and research into inpatient rehabilitation after hip or knee surgery.
She was awarded the Victorian Government Travel Fellowship to the United Kingdom in 2007 for her research on hospital orthopaedic outpatient care.
“The existence of a Clinical Doctorate program at La Trobe University in 2001 was timely for me, as I was working in a healthcare environment of cost rationalisation through case-mixed funding,” she says.
“I lived a research question and La Trobe’s program provided the rigour and guidance I needed as a mature-aged student, to research my question. And, much to my surprise, what we developed has had a lasting impact. Thank you, La Trobe!”
Professor Russell Hoye, Dean of the School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, said Dr Oldmeadow is one of the School’s outstanding alumna.
“With over five decades of experience in physiotherapy and a significant contribution to clinical research, Dr Oldmeadow has made a lasting contribution to her field.”
