Rate My Professor Bianca Haagman (Nee Burro)

Bianca Haagman (nee Burro) is a Lecturer in Physiotherapy within the School of Health Sciences at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle campus. She earned her B.Sc in Physiotherapy from Curtin University of Technology in 2006. Following graduation, she commenced her clinical career at Royal Perth Hospital, where she worked predominantly in spinal cord injury rehabilitation from 2006 until joining academia. In 2012, she became a lecturer at Notre Dame, teaching in the neurological stream of the physiotherapy program. She teaches courses such as Movement Science and Applied Neuroscience. Currently, she maintains clinical practice at Fiona Stanley Hospital, focusing on spinal cord injury outpatient rehabilitation.

Haagman's professional expertise lies in neurological physiotherapy, with a particular emphasis on spinal cord injury rehabilitation. Her clinical and academic work bridges hospital-based rehabilitation and university education, contributing to the training of future physiotherapists in neurological conditions. She has co-authored several peer-reviewed publications in her field. Notable works include Ghosh, S., Putrino, D., Burro, B., & Ring, A. (2009). 'Pattern of spatio-temporal correlations in the neural activity of the cat motor cortex during trained forelimb movements,' published in Somatosensory and Motor Research, 26(2-3), 31-49. As Bianca Burro, she contributed to Hang, J., Francis-Coad, J., Burro, B., Nobre, D., & Hill, A.M. (2016). 'Assessing knowledge, motivation and perceptions about falls prevention among recently graduated physiotherapy students,' in Physiotherapy Research International. More recent contributions include Keightley, J.G.A., et al. (2023). 'Models of care for musculoskeletal shoulder pain in spinal cord injury: a scoping review,' in the Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine, and Buckingham, R.G., et al. (2025). '“Rock on technology”: perspectives of people with neurological conditions on music technology,' in Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology. Her research involvement extends to presentations and acknowledgements at events like the 13th Australasian Neurotrauma Symposium. Through her dual roles in clinical practice and academia, Haagman supports advancements in rehabilitation for individuals with spinal cord injuries and neurological impairments.