Patient Perspectives in ACL Injury and Rehab

Joanne Parsons

Dr. Joanne Parsons is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. Joanne comes from a clinical background in outpatient orthopedic physical therapy. She has worked with many sports teams and at events as a therapist, including the Maccabi Games in Israel. Her PhD, funded by a CIHR Doctoral Research Award, focused on risk factors and prevention of anterior cruciate ligament injury in girls and young women involved in sport. Her current work looks at the use of resistance training activities to maximize health and performance, as well as decrease injury risk, across diverse populations. Investigating the influence sex/gender has on an individual’s choice to pursue resistance training activities, and the resulting consequences, is a particular focus.

Anupa Pathak

Anupa Pathak is a physiotherapist from Nepal. She is finishing up her Ph.D. at the University of Otago, New Zealand. She has published 13 peer-reviewed papers. Her research interests include outcome measurement, implementation science, and health literacy. She has presented in several international conferences including the last three World Physiotherapy Congresses (in Cape Town, Geneva, and 2021 virtual congress) in a variety of formats (Focused symposium, Discussion, State-of-Art presentation, Oral presentation and Poster presentation). She was a speaker on the focused symposium on “Power, privilege and disadvantage in physiotherapy: who decides” at WCPT 2021. As a result of the experience, she has been a keen learner to understand privilege, disadvantage, equity and inclusion.  

Julie Burland

Dr. Burland’s research background is in the evaluation and recovery of neuromuscular function and psychosocial factors influencing postoperative and return to sport outcomes after ACL reconstruction. Specifically my work has proposed the presence of learned helplessness, a psychobehavioral phenomenon, and its direct link to neurological alterations after ACLR. This work also explores how learned helplessness may influence other clinically relevant outcomes such as lower extremity biomechanics, quadriceps health and perceived function. Developing this knowledge base will help to inform future rehabilitation practices and return to physical activity progressions after ACL reconstruction. My long-term career objective is to continue to produce research that will help advance clinical rehabilitation science and effectively translate this knowledge to clinicians in order to promote lower extremity joint health, psychosocial well-being and long-term quality of life across active populations.

Nicole Surdyka

Nicole is the Lead Physical Therapist at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center in Santa Monica, CA where she works with elite athletes in various action and extreme sports. Prior to joining Red Bull, she was the Rehab Director for OL Reign, a professional soccer team in the National Women's Soccer League. She specializes in translating research into clinical practice, and utilizing field-based rehabilitation to prepare an athlete to return to sport. Outside of clinical practice, Nicole has experience teaching continuing education courses including Managing the [Un]Injured Soccer Player and Ethical Return to Sport Decision Making, and has presented at national and international conferences.

Ryan Zarzycki

Dr. Zarzycki is an assistant professor in the Physical Therapy Department at Arcadia University where he teaches Anatomy and Biomechanics. He has an active research agenda examining rehabilitation and injury prevention in youth/adult athletes. Specifically his research focuses on examining changes in neuromuscular function after ACL reconstruction, developing novel treatment paradigms to address these changes, and examining psychological factors affecting outcomes after ACL reconstruction. Additionally, Ryan works with youth athletes to better understand sport specialization and injury prevention in overhead athletes. Ryan's research is driven by his over 10 years of clinical experiences in sports and orthopedic physical therapy.

Linda Truong

Linda is a physiotherapist and PhD Candidate at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She has more than 10 years of clinical experience working with patients with traumatic knee injuries and is currently assisting in the Stop OsteoARthritis (SOAR) clinical trial at UBC. This program aims to improve patients' ability to self-manage their long-term knee health and delay/prevent post-traumatic osteoarthritis after a sport-related knee injury. 

Linda’s research focuses on understanding the role of social support after a traumatic knee injury and how this may help to improve exercise participation. Her hope is to help shift clinicians and researchers to move beyond only treating the physical aspect of ACL/knee injuries and identify ways to leverage social support in clinical interventions and practice.

Christina Le

Christina Le is a physiotherapist and PhD candidate in Rehabilitation Sciences in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. As a physiotherapist, she frequently treats individuals with knee injuries. Her clinical experience combined with her personal experience of recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury inspired her to study the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of youth following a sport-related knee injury. Christina aims to identify factors that influence youth HRQoL during rehabilitation and develop strategies to boost long-term HRQoL in her PhD research.

Dawn Richards

Dawn lives with rheumatoid and osteo-arthritis. She is a PhD analytical chemist by training and she has a passion to ensure patients inform research and healthcare. She is self-employed (she owns Five02 Labs, Inc.) and helps people and organizations design and execute on their 'patient engagement' initiatives using leading practices and tailoring their approaches to meet their goals and their patient partners' needs. Some of her current clients include Clinical Trials Ontario, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis, and the University Health Network (Toronto, Canada). She has contributed to the literature and practice in patient engagement around compensation of patient partners, authorship with patient partners, and recognizing patients as people with various skills and who lead fulfilling lives

Lindsey Plass

Lindsey received her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Northwestern University in 2012.  She completed the Johns Hopkins Hospital and George Washington University Orthopedic Physical Therapy Residency in 2015 and became a board certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist in 2016.  She then moved back to Chicago and completed the University of Chicago Medicine Orthopedic Manual Therapy Fellowship in 2019. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapists. Her clinical and research interests include treating athletes with hip and knee pain, particularly endurance athletes with ACL injuries as well as those with FAI/labral tears.  She is an avid marathon runner and long course triathlete. It was her own lived experience with hip pain and struggles through the medical system that sparked her interest in helping others with hip and knee issues get back to doing the things they love.  Additionally, her old sister tore both of her ACLs 3 years apart.  Seeing the complications her sister went through after recovery, including requiring additional surgeries, has also inspired Lindsey’s passion for helping athletes with ACL injuries.  In 2021, Lindsey was invited to be a part of the international Young Athlete’s Hip Research (YAHiR) Collaboration led by Dr. Henrik (Paul) Dijkstra who is the Director of Medical Education at Aspetar.  The aim of the YAHiR Delphi Study and Collaboration is to contribute to improving the quality of research and clinical management of primary cam morphology.