| Katerina Zirogiannis surrounded by exercise balls in the Exercise Sci... Katerina Zirogiannis surrounded by exercise balls in the Exercise Science and Rehabilitation Centre |
UOW staff member recognised for helping injured workers
16 Apr 2008 | Bernie Goldie
Exercise physiologist Katerina Zirogiannis from UOW’s Exercise Science and Rehabilitation Centre (ESRC) has been awarded a “Professional Practice Award” by the Australian Association for Exercise and Sports Science (AAESS) at the AAESS national conference held in Melbourne.
The award is intended to recognise the “best application of science to professional practice” for Katerina’s work as a clinical practitioner, and her use of clinical outcomes to improve outcomes for her patients.
Katerina presented a study outlining the ESRC’s Job Ready Functional Rehabilitation Program outcomes in chronic and sub-acute lower back injured patients.
She demonstrated that a functionally-based rehabilitation program can be effective in reducing self-reported pain and disability levels, while simultaneously increasing physical and functional status. These combined appear to provide assistance to injured workers to return to full time pre-injury duties.
The programs are designed to assist people with lower back injuries actively self-manage their conditions through injury specific and functional work specific exercises and education. The main outcomes achieved by clients participating in the initial eight-week program included:
Clinically significant reduction in self-reported pain (31%) and disability (28%)
Improvements in physical and functional measures (lower limb endurance strength-30%, upper limb strength-33% and aerobic capacity-7.7%), and a 98% improvement in lift capacity relative to work demand, assisting clients upgrade duties at work following injury and facilitating restoration of general functioning and re-introduction to pre-injury physical activities.
For full details of outcomes please see website www.esrc.uow.edu.au
Katerina graduated from the four-year Bachelor of Exercise Science and Rehabilitation degree at UOW with 1st class Honours in 2004. Since graduation, she has gained accreditation as an exercise physiologist including musculoskeletal rehabilitation. She has been heavily involved in designing and delivering Job Ready Functional Exercise Rehabilitation programs for the ESRC since 2005.
Katerina works with general practitioners via patient care plans to assist patients to actively self-manage chronic musculoskeletal conditions and chronic diseases/medical conditions via specialised exercise interventions. Katerina is also involved in developing and delivering exercise programs for individuals in the community including group programs for individuals with type-2 diabetes, exercise programs for chronic disease management, falls prevention programs for the elderly and preventative exercise and education programs for corporate clients.
|
