Rate My Professor Rosa Virgara

Dr. Rosa Virgara is a Lecturer in Physiotherapy in the School of Allied Health and Human Performance within the College of Health at Adelaide University. She earned a Bachelor of Physiotherapy with First Class Honours from the University of South Australia in 2007 and a PhD from the same institution in 2021. Her doctoral thesis centered on leading the development of Australian physical activity and screen time guidelines for outside school hours care services. As a new graduate, she worked in a large tertiary hospital across orthopaedic, cardiorespiratory, women's health, and outpatient physiotherapy settings, while also serving as a clinical educator for third-year acute care students. Since 2023, she has held the position of Lecturer in Physiotherapy, teaching in undergraduate and graduate programs. She maintains ongoing clinical practice as a Physiotherapist at Calvary Hospital since 2019 and collaborates on research with the Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition, and Activity (ARENA).

Dr. Virgara's research specializations encompass health promotion, physiotherapy, and cardiology, particularly physical activity interventions, screen time policies in childcare, and innovative tools like real-time ultrasound imaging to predict postoperative complications in coronary artery bypass grafting patients—a project funded by the 2025 Health Translation SA Catalyst Grant. Her contributions have earned several accolades, including the 2021 Ian Davey Thesis Prize from the University of South Australia (AUD 5000), the 2022 Asia-Pacific Society for Physical Activity Oral Presentation Award for Early Career Researchers, the 2020 BUPA Health Research Grant, the 2020 UniSA Allied Health and Human Performance 3MT People's Choice Award, and the 2018 Healthy Development Adelaide PhD Excellence Award (AUD 15000). Key publications include Singh et al. (2023), 'Effectiveness of physical activity interventions for improving depression, anxiety and distress: an overview of systematic reviews' in the British Journal of Sports Medicine; Singh et al. (2023), 'Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of chatbots on lifestyle behaviours' in npj Digital Medicine; Virgara et al. (2022), 'Physical activity and screen time in outside school hours care services across Australia: current versus best practice' in BMC Public Health; Virgara et al. (2021), 'Development of Australian physical activity and screen time guidelines for outside school hours care: an international Delphi study' in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity; and Virgara et al. (2020), 'A scoping review of physical activity and screen time guidelines for use in Outside School Hours Care' in BMC Pediatrics. She is eligible to co-supervise Masters and PhD students.