Rate My Professor Alicia Spittle

Professor Alicia Spittle is a distinguished physiotherapist and researcher at the University of Melbourne, holding the position of Professor in the Department of Physiotherapy within the Melbourne School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. She earned her PhD, Master of Physiotherapy (coursework), and Bachelor of Physiotherapy from the University of Melbourne. Clinically, she practices as a paediatric physiotherapist in the neonatal intensive care unit and follow-up clinic at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne. Previously, she served as Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences from 2021 until recently returning to full-time research following her NHMRC L2 Investigator Grant award.

Spittle's research interests center on early neurodevelopmental assessments, detection of motor impairments, and intervention strategies for preterm and high-risk infants. She co-leads the motor team in the Victorian Infant Brain Studies (VIBeS) at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and has pioneered innovations like a smartphone app for cerebral palsy risk screening to facilitate early diagnosis and telehealth interventions. Her seminal Cochrane systematic review, "Early developmental intervention programmes provided post hospital discharge to prevent motor and cognitive impairments in preterm infants born <37 weeks," first published in 2007 and updated in 2012, 2015, and 2024, has garnered over 1,000 citations and shaped numerous international randomized controlled trials. Other notable publications include "School-Age Outcomes of Early Intervention for Preterm Infants and Their Parents" (Pediatrics, 2016) and recent works such as "Predicting long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes for children born very preterm: a systematic review" (Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2026). As an NHMRC Career Development Fellow and Dame Kate Campbell Fellow, her contributions extend to executive roles in the Centre of Research Excellence in Newborn Medicine, where she co-chairs the Policy & Practice Translation Subcommittee. Her work has significant global impact on improving outcomes for vulnerable infants.