About Us

Introduction

SD Laboratories was formed as a collaboration between Neurosurgeon Professor Tony Goldschlager, Medical Doctor Prateek Bandopadhayay, Physiotherapist Peter Allen, Neuroscientist Professor Scott Ayton and Engineers Winston Wijeyeratne and Selvam Sinnapan (the founders of Sleeping Duck).

The project began with the aim of finding a solution to improve the sleep of Professor Goldschlager’s patients with chronic pain.

Having studied the research that links poor sleep quality and body support to worse pain outcomes, Professor Goldschlager sought to develop a reliable practical sleep optimisation solution that could be implemented in a clinical Physiotherapy setting.

That solution would provide a powerful holistic option for patients seeking relief from chronic pain, or seeking to optimise next day performance.

Together with Sleep Physician Harshan Kumar, the team developed an adjunct model of care, that Physiotherapists can use to assess and optimise sleep for their patients.

The model includes two arms.

First, it involves training the physiotherapist in detecting sleep disorders and optimising sleep quality through the management of these conditions.

Second, they are trained in the use of a novel prescriptible bed system that they can use to confidently and reliably prescribe the patient’s bed and pillow support under video guidance, in line with the research that exists around bed support and pain. Its the first time the Physiotherapist has had access to tools that allow them to ensure an individualised, reliably reproduced, sleep posture for the patient at home.

After a successful feasibility study, the team has begun rolling out their work by equipping and training a select number of Australian Physiotherapy clinics to undertake the model of care with their patients.

The team continue to innovate in this area, and are collaborating on research projects to further the evidence base in Sleep and Pain.