CONFERENCE REVIEW
CA Researchers’ Day 2019 By: Amber Beynon B.Sc. (Hons), B.Chiro
This was the eighth annual CA Researchers’ Day and proved to be another fantastic day. Master of ceremonies, Michael Swain, opened proceedings by reminding us of the purpose of the researchers’ day and encouraging us to become researchers hallmarked by critical thinking. The first speaker was the incredible Dr Hazel Jenkins. Recently awarded her PhD she talked about juggling the work-life balance and shared insights gained while completing her PhD by balancing working as a chiropractor and lecturer while also being a mother and wife. Hazel explained it is about each person being happy with their particular balance. She mused on coming to terms with not being able to do everything and finding ways of managing the challenges. Her story involved setting limits, goal setting, prioritising realistically, good support, and taking holidays! These were some great take-home messages for those considering or currently engaged in research but also for clinical practice! The next speaker was the inspirational Michele Sterling, a Professor in the Recover Injury Research Centre, Program Lead of the Designing Better Therapies research program, Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Road Traffic Injury Recovery al
at the University of Queensland. In addition, Michelle is a Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist and a Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists. Her impressive resume included generating over $13M in research funding from NHMRC, ARC, and industry partners. No easy feat! She pointed out that sometimes it takes time for the research you are engaged in to become fruitful. Often times you question the worth of it during the early stages. Michelle spoke of the positives of having a research career and these included the joy of continued learning, travel opportunities, engaging with smart and dedicated people, writing, and having a flexible schedule. On the other side, the negatives included needing to be resilient, maintaining focus, dealing with criticism, and finding a work/life balance. After a break the morning sessions concluded with a panel comprising Professors Dave Newell and Stephen Perle, alongside Drs Bobby Maybee, Matthew Bulman, Amber Beynon and Julie Kendall discussing “What do chiropractors want from their researchers?’ As is now customary, the afternoon was dedicated to podium and poster research presentations, An excellent response to the Call for Papers meant the convenors had their work cut out to manage the peer review process to select those to present at podium, however this did result in the eight podium presentations being of a very high standard. First place was awarded to Katie de Luca for her research “Older patients who present to chiropractors in Australia and Canada: Who are they and what conditions do they present with?”, second place went to Amber Beynon for her
“Systematic review with meta-analysis of chronic physical illnesses, mental health disorders and psychological features as potential risk factors for back pain from childhood to young adulthood” while third place was awarded to Hazel Jenkins who presented research on “Effectiveness of treatments to decrease thoracic hyperkyphosis: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis”. A large number of posters were also on display presenting a range of research including several entries from students at Murdoch University. The Best Poster was awarded to Amber Beynon who presented her project “What happens to children who have low back pain at 14? A trajectory study until the age of 22” while the People’s Choice award went to Natalie Clohessy for her poster “Patient reported outcome measures for low back pain and utilisation amongst Chiropractors in Australia: Facilitators and barriers to clinical implementation”. Murdoch University students P. Kim, A. Bridge, J. Jessop, S. Saunders, D. Williams and their supervisor Jeff Cooley took home the prize for Best Student Poster for “Testing the feasibility of a protocol for assessing the accuracy of DEXA scans versus plain film x-rays in identifying common variations in spinal bone anatomy”. Now firmly established as an annual event, the Researchers’ Day continues to raise the bar each year by attracting outstanding speakers and providing a platform for high quality research presentations. Those attending get to see first-hand the research that is happening within chiropractic and many leave with a renewed sense of hope for the future of research within our profession.
Winners: Dr Amber Beynon, Dr Katie de Luca, Dr Natalie Clohessy, Dr Hazel Jenkins with convenors Dr Michael Swain and Professor Simon French.
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CA NEWS SEPTEMBER 2019
