Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Adrian Traeger is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health, a division of the School of Public Health, University of Sydney. He is a physiotherapist who has worked in primary care for over 10 years. He completed his doctorate at NeuRA, UNSW, which focused on how best to reassure patients with low back pain.
Adrian’s postdoctoral research focus is on developing strategies to improve healthcare for low back pain and other musculoskeletal conditions. He is currently investigating ways to reduce unnecessary diagnostic imaging for low back pain. Other interests include overdiagnosis and overtreatment, communicating research evidence to healthcare consumers, and evidence-based practice. Follow Adrian’s work on Google Scholar.
Since finishing his PhD, Adrian has continued to work closely with the McAuley Group. He supervises 3 PhD students at NeuRA (Aidan Cashin, Edel O’Hagan, Rod Rizzo) and is an investigator on the Social Media for Low Back Pain project.
Social media is a potentially powerful tool to provide a message of education and reassurance to the general public about low back pain. This project will use social media to educate the general public about low back pain and promote self-management.
The project involves three stages. Firstly, we will conduct a content analysis to gain an insight into social media users’ perceptions and understanding about low back pain. This could determine whether social media could serve as an educational tool through which accurate information related to low back pain could be disseminated to the public.
Second, a recent Delphi survey of 150 low back pain researchers identified 30 key messages considered to be important for the general public to know about LBP. These statements provide evidence-based information on the diagnosis, prognosis and management of LBP and are intended to educate, reassure and promote self-management. We will investigate the attitude of the general public towards these messages.
Third, working in conjunction with a media company Y&R, we will design and test a social media campaign to encourage self-management for people with low back pain.
YANNICK GILANYI Honours Student : y.gilanyi@neura.edu.au
BRISHNA SHAH Honours Student : b.shah@neura.edu.au
JACK DEVONSHIRE Research Assistant : j.devonshire@neura.edu.au
HARRISON HANSFORD Doctoral Candidate : h.hansford@neura.edu.au
THIAGO FOLLY Research Assistant
ANIKA HAIGH Research Assistant : a.haigh@neura.edu.au
PAULINE ZAHARA Clinical Trial Manager
DR IAN SKINNER Postdoctoral Research Fellow