Rate My Professor Carrie Falling

Dr. Carrie Falling serves as a Lecturer in the School of Physiotherapy at the University of Otago, part of the Faculty of Health Professional Programmes within the Division of Health Sciences. Hailing from Alabama, United States, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Anderson University in 2001, followed by a Bachelor of Physiotherapy with First Class Honours from the University of Otago in 2014, where she was recognized as the Best All Round Student and Top Student. Falling completed her PhD at the University of Otago, investigating persistent musculoskeletal pain in individuals with inflammatory bowel disease, under the supervision of Associate Professor Ramakrishnan Mani, Professor Dave Baxter, and Associate Professor Simon Stebbings. She received the University of Otago Doctoral Scholarship from 2017 to 2020 and the MacGibbon PhD Travel Fellowship, which supported her research activities including time at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Before her academic career, Falling practiced as a physiotherapist in primary care in Dunedin, treating acute and chronic musculoskeletal conditions, and has taught physiotherapy since 2016 in various formats including undergraduate and postgraduate courses, clinical supervision, laboratories, and lectures.

Her research interests encompass enhancing care for individuals with chronic pain and promoting evidence-based physiotherapy education. Current programmes include studies on Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions such as fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome, Clinical Assessment of Pain utilizing quantitative sensory testing, developmental trajectories, and machine learning in conditions like osteoarthritis and colorectal cancer, and the application of generative artificial intelligence in developing clinical reasoning and communication skills in physiotherapy students. Falling is a New Zealand Registered Physiotherapist and holds memberships in the New Zealand Pain Society, International Association for the Study of Pain, Pain@Otago Research Theme Steering Committee as Early Career Representative, and the University of Otago Division of Health Sciences Early and Mid-Career Research Group. Key publications feature Overton, M., et al. (2024). Understanding the biopsychosocial knee osteoarthritis pain experience. PAIN Reports, 9(4), e1172; Shemmell, J., et al. (2024). Different descending pathways mediate early and late portions of lower limb responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation. Journal of Neurophysiology, 131, 1299-1310; and Falling, C., & Mani, R. (2016). Ageing and obesity indices influences the tactile acuity of the low back regions: A cross-sectional study. Manual Therapy, 23, 25-31.