Rate My Professor Louise Koelmeyer

Louise A. Koelmeyer is Associate Professor and Head of the School of Health Sciences and Nursing in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences at Macquarie University, a position she has held since February 2023. She also serves as Director of the Australian Lymphoedema Education, Research and Treatment (ALERT) Centre since January 2020, where she strategically manages and develops its education, research, and treatment arms. This multidisciplinary translational research centre is recognized as a LE&RN Comprehensive Centre of Excellence. With over 30 years of clinical experience in public and private hospital and clinic settings, Koelmeyer specializes in breast cancer rehabilitation and lymphoedema management across assessment, education, early detection, and treatment. She is an accredited Lymphoedema Practitioner listed on the Australasian Lymphology Association National Lymphoedema Practitioner Register and a qualified supervisor for MRes and PhD students. Her academic qualifications include a Bachelor of Applied Science in Occupational Therapy from the University of Sydney in 1990 and a PhD from Macquarie University in 2021.

Koelmeyer's research interests center on achieving better outcomes in innovative early and advanced lymphoedema management through conservative and surgical treatments. Key areas include early detection and management of breast cancer-related lymphoedema using bioimpedance spectroscopy, prospective surveillance models of care in cancer rehabilitation, outcomes of surgical interventions, and indocyanine green lymphography to personalize treatment programs such as manual lymphatic drainage. She has authored or co-authored 81 research outputs, including highly cited publications such as 'Reliability and validity of arm volume measurements for assessment of lymphedema' (2006, Physical Therapy, 469 citations), 'Risk factors for lymphoedema in women with breast cancer: a large prospective cohort' (2016, The Breast, 217 citations), 'Advances in the prevention and treatment of breast cancer-related lymphedema' (2023, Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 168 citations), 'Liposuction for advanced lymphedema: a multidisciplinary approach for complete reduction of arm and leg swelling' (2015, Annals of Surgical Oncology, 146 citations), and 'A new indocyanine green fluorescence lymphography protocol for identification of the lymphatic drainage pathway for patients with breast cancer-related lymphoedema' (2019, BMC Cancer, 100 citations). Her scholarship has accumulated over 2,000 citations with an h-index of 24. Koelmeyer leads ALERT's education faculty, contributing to programs like the Graduate Certificate in Lymphoedema Management aligned with ALA Competency Standards. Her teams have received awards including the 2022 Excellence in Learning & Teaching Prize, 2022 Lighthouse Program Award for Innovation, and 2023 Excellence in Research for Innovation, Partnership and Entrepreneurship. She has presented invited talks on lymphoedema strategies, such as 'Lymphoedema: Innovative strategies for assessment and management' (2019).