Dr Suzanne Snodgrass

Biography

Dr Snodgrass is a Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy. Prior to coming to academia, she worked as a physiotherapist in private practice and sporting settings for 10 years in the USA and Australia. Since returning to study in 2001, she has completed a research masters and a PhD, which defined and quantified manual therapy treatment doses for spinal pain. She has published 23 papers in peer-reviewed journals and given 29 conference presentations, the majority international. Her work has been recognised with several awards, including excellence in a published review of the literature in an international journal and an international post-graduate student prize.

Dr Snodgrass’ research focuses on the mechanisms that define and modulate pain in the neck, back and head. This includes defining the dose of conservative therapies for pain, estimating injury risk in work and sporting settings and improving the practical skills of novice clinicians in treating pain. She is known for her work defining spinal stiffness and the treatments designed to address this, receiving an international invitation to publish a review on this topic.

Dr Snodgrass has a strong interest in student learning, and is currently the project leader of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council grant to investigate the effectiveness of electronic assessment and feedback mechanisms for evaluating health students' practical skills. This project has led to further grants to develop these assessment techniques for use in clinical settings and with other health disciplines. Dr Snodgrass has also developed equipment that is now used to teach physiotherapy students the practical skills of accurate application of manual therapy techniques.

Dr Snodgrass has attracted $514,000 in research funding. Dr Snodgrass was also selected for a University Fellowship to develop improved training programs for students to learning to manage patients with painful musculoskeletal conditions. She has supervised 24 research Honours students and three research higher degree students. Dr Snodgrass served on the Scientific Committee for the Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Australia (MPA) national conference in 2007 and convened this conference in 2009. She is an invited reviewer for four international journals in the field of physiotherapy. She currently serves on the NSW MPA committee.

Dr Snodgrass’ work role consists of a balance of research, teaching and administration. She convenes the School’s Honours programs (includes two programs for 6 diverse health disciplines and 9 degree programs), and coordinates Research Higher Degree programs (PhD and research Masters). She is the Deputy Chair of the School of Health Sciences Research and Research Training Committee (representing nine discipline programs), and contributes to the teaching of musculoskeletal content in the physiotherapy program.

Qualifications

• PhD (Physiotherapy), University of Newcastle, 2008
• Master of Medical Science, University of Newcastle, 2004
• Bachelor of Science (Physical Therapy), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1992

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Research

Research keywords

• cervical spine
• healthy lifestyle
• musculoskeletal manipulations
• neck pain
• physical activity
• physical therapy/physiotherapy
• spine

Research expertise

Dr Snodgrass’ research focuses on the mechanisms that define and modulate pain in the neck, back and head. This includes defining the dose of conservative therapies for pain, investigating rehabilitation strategies that include movement retraining, estimating injury risk in work and sporting settings and improving the practical skills of novice clinicians in treating pain. She also leads a multidisciplinary collaboration which aims to improve health professionals' input to the managing obesity, a factor in pain, and promoting healthy lifestyles in their patients.

Collaboration

An early career researcher, Dr Snodgrass has established international and national collaborations related to the mechanisms and treatment of musculoskeletal pain which have attracted three competitive grants. She also leads two local collaborations, one focussed in musculoskeletal pain and one multidisciplinary group focussed on health professionals’ input to obesity management.

Fields of Research

Code	Description	Percentage
110300	Clinical Sciences	45
110600	Human Movement And Sports Science	45
110499	Complementary And Alternative Medicine Not Elsewhere Classified	10

Centres and Groups

Centre

• Hunter Medical Research Institute
• PRC - Priority Research Centre for Gender, Health & Ageing
• PRC - Priority Research Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health (CTNMH)

Group

• Hunter Medical Research Institute - Public Health

Memberships

Body relevant to professional practice.

• Member - Australian Physiotherapy Association

Committee/Associations (relevant to research).

• Member, Scientific Committee - Scientific Committee Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Australia Biennial Conference 2007

Other

• Member - Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Australia

Awards

Research Award.

2008	ANZAME Post-graduate Student Award Australia and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Education (ANZAME) (Australia) For: Innovative technology accelerates learning of hands-on physiotherapy treatment skills (Snodgrass SJ, Rivett DA, Robertson VJ, & Stojanovski E)
2007	Best of the Best Research Showcase First Runner-up Faculty of Health, The University of Newcastle (Australia) For outstanding oral presentation
2005	Faculty of Health Award for Outstanding Oral Presentation Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle (Australia) Graduate Students' Day award for outstanding oral presentation.
2002	OPTP Award for Excellence in a Published Review of the Literature Journal of Manual and Manipulative Therapy (United States) Journal award for published research article.

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Administrative

Administrative expertise

Bachelor of Health Sciences (Honours) Program Convenor

School of Health Sciences Honours Coordinator (Embedded+ and End-on programs)

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Teaching

Teaching keywords

• musculoskeletal physiotherapy
• physiotherapy
• sports physiotherapy
• therapeutic exercise

Teaching expertise

Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy

Practical assessment for health students