Ruth Barker

Ruth is a researcher, inventor, educator and clinician with particular interests in neurological rehabilitation; innovative models of clinical service delivery for rural, remote and Indigenous communities; and building research capacity across Allied Health disciplines. Ruth supports, mentors and advises a raft of PhD students and clinician researchers across the health professions.

Ruth’s commitment to innovative service delivery in Northern Australia, particularly in the area of rehabilitation, includes a lead role in development of the following:

• Northern Australian Research Network (NARN) – ‘Function Disability and Health’.
• Rural Generalist Education Program, provided by JCU and QUT in partnership with the Allied Health Professionals Office of Queensland (AHPOQ).

Over the past decade, Ruth has attracted funding of more than $16 million to design, pilot, implement and evaluate community rehabilitation services in Townsville and Mt Isa with outreach services to surrounding communities. These services incorporate interprofessional, student-assisted service delivery models.

Ruth’s key research in the area of Neurological Rehabilitation is ‘Upper limb recovery after stroke’. She is the lead inventor on the SMART Arm, a training device to promote recovery, and the lead author of the Drive Your Own Recovery Program. To date, these initiatives have attracted more than $1 million in funding and resulted in the completion of six clinical trials, two PhDs and 16 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Education:

PhD in Physiotherapy, Master of Arts in Aboriginal Studeis, Post Graduate Dimploma of Education, Bachelor of Applied Science in Physiotherapy.