Professor Jennie Scarvell is Clinical Researcher. She is leader of the Clinical Research Rehabilitation and Translation Area of Research Strength in the Faculty of Health https://www.canberra.edu.au/faculties/health/crrt

A Professor of Physiotherapy, she has experience as Associate Dean of Research and Innovation, Deputy Dean of the Faculty, Head of School of Health Sciences, and Head of Physiotherapy within the Faculty of Health, University of Canberra. 

Professor Jennie Scarvell has degrees in Physiotherapy, Education and Research (PhD and BAppSc, Physiotherapy (USyd) , GC Higher Ed, Cert Health Econ). As a clinical physiotherapist for 15 years, in Australia and Canada, and senior physiotherapist in outpatients and rheumatology, she developed an interest in interventions for osteoarthritis and chronic pain. Her PhD examined the genesis of osteoarthritis in ACL-injured knees. Jennie was one of the team that developed the Physiotherapy curriculum for the Master of Physiotherapy when it began at University of Canberra in 2004 and was deputy head and clinical education coordinator. Jennie spent 3 years as Clinical Research Coordinator in Orthopaedics at Canberra Hospital and then returned to UC as Head of Physiotherapy in 2011 for the commencement of the Bachelor of Physiotherapy in 2013. 

Jennie has 102 publications including 90 in SCOPUS and has supervised 18 HDR students to completion. Research highlights are publications in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and presentations at the Combined Orthopaedic Meeting and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Jennie has over $1.8 million career grants funding.

Her research focuses on  physiotherapy, arthritis and orthopaedics, using medical imaging to analyse joint kinematics. Clinical outcomes studies and intervention trials include physiotherapy for knee osteoarthritis, back pain, hip and knee replacement, and spinal fusion surgery. She is a visiting fellow at the Trauma and Orthopaedic Research Unit at Canberra Hospital. 

Current Projects: 

Best practice in management of knee osteoarthritis. 

Alignment of total knee replacement using mechanical or kinematic axes. 

Completed:

Quality of life and clinical outcomes from surgical fusion of the spine for children with neuromuscular scoliosis. Corinne Bridge, and Prof David Little, Westmead Children's Hospital. 

PICKLeS. Clinical and patient reported outcomes of three designs of total knee replacement. A randomised clinical trial of knee kinematics. Dr Diana Perriman (ACTH), Prof Paul Smith (ANU), Prof Mark Pickering (UNSW), and Joe Lynch, Catherine Galvin.

What is occupation in Occupational Therapy. Amelia Di Tommaso, Stephen Isbel, Alison Wicks.

Pilates for low back pain, a randomised controlled trial. Roopika Sodhi, Cherie Wells, Stuart Semple.

When is the right time to have a knee replacement?

People with knee osteoarthritis frequently ask physiotherapists for advice about knee replacement as they are perceived as neutral. On one hand the better, stronger you go into surgery, the better you'll be coming out. On the other hand only 80% of people are satisfied with thier knee replacement and last, they dont last forever, they wear out. Wouldnt it be great if there was a decision tool, based on the best of evidence, with which to advise people?  

We seek a research student for a Economic Analysis of the Costs of waiting for a knee replacement in the ACT.

Waiting for a total knee replacement can take years. While waiting, patients deteriorate, losing capacity for physical activity and work. There is overwhelming evidence for non-surgical management for knee osteoarthritis outcomes, and there is a lost opportunity if there is no uptake of effective non-surgical knee osteoarthritis programs in the waiting period.

We are reviewed the pathways to elective knee replacement in the ACT, and part of this large study includes a health economics analysis of the costs of waiting. Ethics is approved for this project. The research team is multidisciplinary and includes physiotherapists, surgeons, GP’s, and researchers.

This semester 2 project would be supervised by Jennie Scarvell, Itismita Mohanty and Theo Niyonsenga.

A student who has taken Health Economics prior to taking Research Project would suit this project. Or a student who is interested in a Master of Health (Research) degree.

We seek a research student for the Development of a questionnaire to measure the Impact of Waiting for a knee replacement in the ACT.

Waiting for a total knee replacement can take years. While waiting, patients deteriorate, losing capacity for physical activity and work. There is overwhelming evidence for non-surgical management for knee osteoarthritis outcomes, and there is a lost opportunity if there is no uptake of effective non-surgical knee osteoarthritis programs in the waiting period. We are reviewed the pathways to elective knee replacement in the ACT.

The impact of waiting for patients has not been measured. A tool is in the early development phase to measure pain, hardship and financial implications of waiting. This project is part of a larger study. Ethics is approved for this project. The research team is multidisciplinary and includes physiotherapists, surgeons, GP’s, and researchers.

This semester 2 project would be supervised by Jennie Scarvell, and Theo Niyonsenga.

This would suit

• a student taking ‘Research Project’ to take on a part of the development.
• a student wishing to take a PhD or Master of Health (Research) degree, with an interest in patient reported outcomes, psychometric properties of measures, or epidemiology and quality of life studies.