Associate Professor Alison Harmer is affiliated with the Discipline of Physiotherapy in the Sydney School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, at the University of Sydney. She contributes to key research centres including the Respiratory and Cardiac Rehabilitation and Management Research Group and the Neuro-Musculoskeletal Research Collaborative. Her academic interests centre on exercise physiology and rehabilitation for chronic conditions. Specific areas include knee osteoarthritis management through resistance exercise, hip fracture inpatient rehabilitation using alternative workforces, type 2 diabetes impacts on nerve function and cardiorespiratory measures, musculoskeletal pain, physical activity prevalence post total knee replacement, and perceptions of non-invasive ventilation during exercise in COPD patients. Harmer has coordinated units in the Master of Physiotherapy program, covering topics such as cardiovascular and respiratory deconditioning.

With 98 publications listed on ResearchGate, accumulating 4,785 citations and 29,718 reads, Harmer's scholarly impact is evident in clinical rehabilitation sciences. Key publications encompass systematic reviews like "Association Between Prescribed Dosage of Resistance Exercise and Change in Pain and Physical Function in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review With Meta-Regression" (2025) and "Relationship Between Number of Different Lower-Limb Resistance Exercises Prescribed in a Program and Exercise Outcomes in People With Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review With Meta-Regression" (2025). Other significant works include "Exercise for osteoarthritis of the knee" (2024), "Boosting inpatient exercise after hip fracture using an alternative workforce: a mixed methods implementation evaluation" (2024), "Cardiovascular and respiratory measures in early-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus compared to matched controls" (2024), "The KOMPACT-P study: Knee Osteoarthritis Management with Physiotherapy-informed exercise and Patient education" (2020), "Prevalence and determinants of physical activity, sedentary behaviour and fatigue five years after total knee replacement" (2022), "Sprint Training Increases Muscle Oxidative Metabolism During High-Intensity Exercise in Type 1 Diabetes" (2008), and "High-Intensity Training Improves Plasma Glucose and Acid-Base Regulation During Intermittent Intense Exercise in Type 1 Diabetes" (2007). She has supervised PhD students and led projects such as the BOOST initiative for post-hip fracture care and trials registered with ANZCTR.

Professional Email: alison.harmer@sydney.edu.au