Speakers

Dr Fi Graham

Dr Fi Graham teaches interprofessional postgraduate rehabilitation, with a particular focus on rehabilitation with children and families, telehealth and implementation of evidence-based best practice. Her research experiences include a wide range of methods spanning qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods and realist methods. She has a particular interest in autonomy supportive therapist-client interactions, often framed as coaching interventions.

Dr Hemakumar Devan

Dr Hemakumar Devan (he/him) is a clinical academic in pain management, working as a Lecturer at the Rehabilitation Teaching and Research Unit, University of Otago and as a Pain Management Physiotherapist at the Wellington Regional Pain Service, Te Whatu Ora Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley. With equity and valuing lived experience expertise at the centre, Dr Devan’s research programme aims to foster self-management support to empower people with persistent pain and their whānau (family and significant others). He currently co-leads a HRC Health Delivery Project Grant to co-develop and implement a story-based, whānau-focused, opioid tapering intervention for people with chronic non-cancer pain. Strategically, his goal is to address health inequities and improve health outcomes for people with persistent pain and their whānau.

In the past five years, Dr Devan has secured over $3.5M in funding, published 40 peer-reviewed articles, and delivered 50+ national and international presentations in pain management. He is a co-chair of the IASP Sex, Gender and Race Special Interest Group, council member of the New Zealand Pain Society and the Deputy Director of Pain@Otago research theme. Dr Devan is a passionate science communicator often presenting his work in pain conferences and in social media (@HemDevan).

Dr Rachelle Martin

Dr Rachelle Martin currently has two roles. She works as a lecturer at the Rehabilitation Teaching and Research Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Otago, Wellington, and she also leads clinical research and knowledge translation at the Burwood Academy Trust (BAT) based in Christchurch. Rachelle aims to develop equitable health-optimising policies and programmes, enabling people who experience disability to live well across their lifespan.

She is committed to participatory methods that listen to and enhance the voices of disabled people, ensuring their perspectives influence health-related policy, programme and service delivery decisions, and work in partnership with Māori researchers to ensure kaupapa Māori responsiveness. She often uses realist review, research or evaluation methods to unpack the ‘black box’ of complex health programmes, by developing a theoretically based understanding of "What works for who, in which contexts, to what extent, and how?" Rachelle’s clinical background (>20 years) is working as a physiotherapist in hospital and community settings, principally alongside people with neurological impairments.