INDUSTRY|12 March 2025

Advancing our new model of care
— Florey Institute launch event

Ian Potter Auditorium, Florey Institute of Neuroscience, Melbourne Australia

The SD Laboratories team launched the outcomes of our feasibility trial for a new ancillary model of care — one that integrates sleep-centred interventions into physiotherapy practice to reduce pain and improve quality of life for people living with chronic pain.

A panel of experts led the discussion on the new model, its scientific basis, and the results achieved by patients with chronic pain who took part in the trial.

The panel included:

Prof. Tony Goldschlager — Neurosurgeon
Dr Harshan Jeyakumar — Sleep Physician
Prof Scott Ayton — Neuroscientist
Peter Allen — Physiotherapist

Professor Tony Goldschlager

Sophie Scott

Peter Allen (Physiotherapist) demonstrating a bed fitting with Wayne Johnston and Sophie Scott (Presenter)

Why physiotherapy, and why sleep?

Physiotherapists are typically the frontline, central point of care for Australians living with chronic pain — often the health professional patients see most regularly, and most consistently, throughout their treatment journey. Allied health interventions such as physiotherapy account for around half of all procedures associated with chronic pain hospital care in Australia.

Our team works directly with physiotherapists to bring emerging evidence — around how working on sleep can meaningfully improve outcomes for people with chronic pain — into the heart of everyday clinical practice.

The panel discussed the growing body of evidence linking poor sleep quality — often driven by undiagnosed sleep disorders — and poor sleep posture, which impairs the body's overnight recovery processes, to the persistence and severity of chronic pain.

Addressing these two factors has been shown to meaningfully reduce pain sensitivity, whole-body inflammation, and physical stiffness and restriction.

Panel discussion

Peter Allen (Physiotherapist)

Claire Newman (Trial participant)

Wayne Johnston (AFL Legend)

How our model works

The model equips physiotherapists to:

Assess sleep quality as a standard part of chronic pain management.
Screen and, with the support of sleep physicians, help diagnose and trial treatment for underlying sleep disorders that may be contributing to a patient's pain.
Prescribe individualised sleep posture using video guidance, using a specialised bed which can be customised to achieve the desired clinical sleep posture for the patient, that reduces muscular guarding and encourages muscular and nervous system "silence" overnight — supporting the body's natural recovery processes during sleep.
Track outcomes over a 12-week period, monitoring changes in pain, disability and quality of life.

The results

Patients in the trial shared powerful personal stories — not just of reduced pain, but of renewed sleep, improved function and a genuine lift in overall wellbeing. The outcomes were striking, underscoring the transformative potential of sleep-based interventions for patients living with chronic pain, and reinforcing sleep as a modifiable, evidence-based target within physiotherapy care.

Captivated audience at the Florey Institute

Looking ahead

Excited by these outcomes and feedback from participating Physiotherapists, our team is now expanding this work.

It is our hope to continue developing this model of care and to partner with physiotherapists more broadly, integrating sleep-centred assessment and intervention into everyday physiotherapy practice — helping more Australians living with chronic pain find real, lasting relief.

We thank The Florey Institute of Neuroscience for hosting this important event, and everyone who contributed to, and shared in, this exciting milestone.