Medical Services

The SIU Medical Team

The medical team is lead by a Medical Director and comprises of Rehabilitation physicians, registrars in training and resident medical officers who offer comprehensive medical care across all facets of spinal cord injury both in an inpatient and outpatient setting.

The Spinal Injuries Unit (SIU) has 40 inpatient beds that are distributed across the four rehabilitation specialists working as unique teams. Each specialist oversees approximately 12 patients and there is a dedicated specialist supervising 4 inpatients requiring definitive pressure area management.

Each specialist is equipped with unique skills to assist with the management of spasticity, sex and fertility, musculoskeletal and upper limb conditions   as a result of spinal cord injury as well as in the management of adult spina bifida.

The medical team is part the interdisciplinary team at SIU who have a holistic, patient centred goal based approach to their practice and also offer their services to the community based Transitional Rehabilitation and Spinal Outreach Teams of the Queensland Spinal Cord Injury Services (QSCIS) through regular liaison.

Additional support in the medical management of SCI clients is provided by a dedicated team of Urologists, Plastic Surgeons, Orthopaedic Surgeons, Neuro-surgeons, Respiratory Physicians and Psychiatrists. Weekly radiology meetings and rounds are also held at SIU by the Urology, Plastics and Orthopaedic services.

Accreditation

The SIU is recognised by the Australasian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine (AFRM) as an accredited training facility for post graduate training in Rehabilitation Medicine and has been credited with many rehabilitation specialists in the art of spinal cord injury medicine over the years.

Specialists of the medical team are also active members of the AFRM, Australia/New Zealand Spinal Cord Society (ANZSCOS) and International Spinal Cord Society (ISCOS). The team successfully organised and hosted the annual combined scientific meeting of AFRM/ANZSCOS at Brisbane in September 2012.

Research and Other Activities

Research which is aptly supported by an extensive in-house database is encouraged in the medical team who have several publications and presentations to their credit.

The Medical Director, who also hold an academic title at the University of Queensland, supervises 3rd year medical students at SIU during their Medicine in Society rotation. Several students have contributed positively to the unit by completing projects in obesity and SCI, preventative strategies of venous thrombo-embolism in SCI, bowel management in SCI and intermittent self catheters in SCI.

Regular outpatient clinics at SIU are run by the medical team consisting of specialist led general clinics to review both new referrals and follow up patients. In addition specialist spasticity, sex and fertility, musculoskeletal, upper limb and adult spina bifida clinics are held. Weekly on site urology and plastics clinics also take place.


The Medical Team

Dr Sridhar Atresh


Dr Sridhar Atresh
Clinical Director
Senior Staff Specialist
MBBS, D'Orth,
MS (Orth), DNB (Orth),
FAFRM (RACP)

Last updated: 15 March 2021