Otago physiotherapy honours graduate and now postgraduate candidate Carrie Falling hails from Alabama in the United States.
From aesthetics to athletics
Her earlier academic work was in the creative sphere, and she holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a Major in Studio Glass.
For a time Carrie practiced as a studio glassblower working alongside internationally renowned glass artists, sculptors, and ceramicists, and also taught at community art centres in her home country.
She undertook training as a digestive health specialist and sports massage therapist before going into private practice in Chicago, Illinois where she focused on high-performance endurance athletics.
Higher honours at Otago
In her honour's year at the School in 2014 Carrie gained Best All Round Student status, and recognition as Top Student.
The School of Physiotherapy Bachelor of Physiotherapy Honour's programme is designed to develop and enhance skills and knowledge specifically in the areas of research enquiry and excellence. In order to gain entry to this challenging course of study the top six students must attain no lower than A- average grades in all weighted papers at the end of their third year of study.
Carrie's project was supervised by Dr. Ramakrishnan Mani and looked at identifying normative values for assessments in chronic low back and knee pain. This project marked the beginning of her passionate interest in research related to pain.
Doctorate studies beckon
After graduation in 2014, Carrie entered private physiotherapy practice in Dunedin, working with patients living with a variety of acute and chronic musculoskeletal conditions but she continued conversations with Dr Mani on an idea that was to become the topic for her current PhD efforts - the exploration of persistent musculoskeletal - or MSK pain in individuals with inflammatory bowel disease, and which aims to characterise the nature of MSK pain in this population.
Her novel research will help the profession to better understand pathways which might trigger the development of MSK pain, and show the way to better targeting of treatments.
Carrie's choice of location for further study was based on personal experience of the School of Physiotherapy and our culture.
“All of my research experiences at the School of Physio, including a summer studentship with Daniel Ribeiro and work with Ram Mani, have been really positive. Fellow researchers and professional support staff are just so helpful. Choosing this department and this team for my post grad studies was a no-brainer.”
If you want to know more about Carrie's research work please email: carrie.falling@otago.ac.nz
You can read more about our postgraduate programmes, including the PhD programme here.