Mission

The objectives of the Active Rehabilitation Research Foundation are to improve quality of life, enhance activity and social participation, and to reduce the economic burden of healthcare for patients by improving outcomes in the pre-treatment, treatment, rehabilitation and recovery by undertaking high quality independent and collaborative research, education and support activities.

The Active Rehabilitation Research Foundation was established as a result of the work of John Fitzgerald, the owner of Active Rehabilitation Physiotherapy (Active).  John started Active, a physiotherapy business, as a sole practitioner, 30 years ago.  The organisation has now grown into a business that employs over 80 people and provides physiotherapy services to patients at a range of hospital and community locations in South East Queensland.  Active delivers clinical services to people with many clinical conditions, the vast majority of whom have conditions that are described in the neurological, neurosurgical, orthopaedic, musculoskeletal, men’s health, women’s health and children’s continence clinical areas.  Many of the services delivered at Active are specialised physiotherapy interventions and Active has over the years become known as a leader in physiotherapy service delivery in some clinical areas.

A desire to leave a deep and lasting professional legacy, and to give back to the community, saw John establish a fledgling research portfolio within the business.  This was achieved by employing a part-time Physiotherapy Research Manager and engaging with local research collaborators.  Five years after commencing that program, Active was engaged in more than 10 research projects and was starting to attract external funding for independent research. In order for the research activity of the business to continue to grow, and to attract and receive further funding, the Active Rehabilitation Research Foundation was established in 2017.