Learning Beyond Measure: Julie Fritz’s Reflections on Continuing Growth in Research

As a seasoned researcher, Julie Fritz, PT, PhD, FAPTA is still growing in the field of physical therapy research. Recently, her work has been focused on examining telehealth delivery of physical therapy to medically underserved and lower-income communities in Utah. Fritz values the opportunity to help shine a light on populations served by federally qualified health centers. She feels that the opportunity to work in different care settings is not only rewarding but allows her to continue to explore new avenues of research.

“We’re working with communities where healthcare resources and access to care is challenging and there’s a lot of barriers,” says Fritz. Overcoming those barriers and delivering high-quality service is what makes the work satisfying in a different way than her past research projects.

Underserved communities often do not have health insurance or access to providers, such as physical therapists. Additionally, there can be language barriers and difficulty scheduling appointments, because members of underserved communities often work multiple jobs at odd hours and have other responsibilities.

“There’s a whole host of barriers that limit access to physical therapy in a lot of communities, so it takes a real multi-faceted approach to try to figure out how to overcome that,” she says. Figuring out how to deliver accessible, high-quality care, with limited resources amidst the complexities of various needs in different communities, is challenging.

These challenges impact Fritz’s research, and how she guides it, by focusing on designing protocols and strategies that are ready to be used sustainably in real-world practice settings. “The nature of the work that I’m interested in is really at the junction of implementation and effectiveness research.”  By aligning interventions with what it means to work as a physical therapist and addressing policy constraints, she seeks to develop a feasible intervention strategy that can be applied in the real world.

Impact of Foundation Funding and Giving Back to the Profession

“The Foundation was absolutely critical for me to start my research career,” says Fritz reflecting on her research journey. She explains the Foundation’s support allowed her to work on rigorous, larger scale projects that might not have been available to a physical therapist in training 25-30 years ago. She highlighted that having a Foundation dedicated to physical therapy research is germane to the profession and invaluable to getting early-career researchers started.

As a beneficiary of the Foundation’s support, she says, “I think that, as a scientist, and especially as someone who’s benefited from the Foundation and the work that they do, it’s really important to give back to the process.” To that end, she served on the Foundation’s Scientific Review Committee (SRC).

Fritz views volunteering for peer review committees as an opportunity to contribute to the profession and support aspiring researchers seeking funding and career advancement. “It’s really a great opportunity to be a volunteer and to do meaningful work that can benefit the profession and can benefit applicants seeking to advance their careers.”

As Fritz’s career continues to grow, she is currently reviewing for NIH and PCORI. She is quick to acknowledge her experience on the Foundation’s SRC was instrumental in honing her skills and shaping her approach to research assessment.

“Being a reviewer for the Scientific Review Committee was really beneficial to me personally. I think anytime you have the chance to work with a group of reviewers who are really committed to the task, you learn a lot about excellent research and what makes a good application.”

Fritz also stressed the importance of dedicating the requisite time and effort to ensure thorough and rigorous assessment, “It just becomes a professional responsibility to give that back and to do it really well, and to commit the time necessary to do it as well as you would want someone to commit time to reviewing your work.”

Julie Fritz, PT, PhD, FAPTA, received a 2002 Academy of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy grant to support a randomized trial to validate a prediction rule for patients with low back pain. Subsequently, she served for several years on the Foundation’s Scientific Review Committee, contributing her expertise as a peer reviewer of Promotion of Doctoral Studies scholarships and research grants.

The Foundation is so grateful for our many volunteers like Julie Fritz who make the effort to give back and help grow and advance both the physical therapy profession and community. If you, or a researcher you know, want to learn more about how to become part of our SRC peer review process please email info@foundation4pt.org to learn more.

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