APA Focus 2026 Highlights
Eight lessons from APA FOCUS26 for practice owners and managers
A sustainable practice needs a capable team, patients who feel understood, useful systems and an owner with the capacity to lead.
The APA FOCUS26 conference in Cairns covered everything from artificial intelligence and new models of care to staff retention, leadership and wellbeing. For practice owners and managers, there was plenty to take back to the clinic.
Here are eight lessons from the sessions I attended, with a practical action you could try in your own clinic.
Treat retention as an ongoing business priority
Nick Schuster | Ultimate Physio
Nick explored the ripple effect of therapist turnover: disrupted patient relationships, extra pressure on the remaining team, reduced business continuity and recruitment fatigue for the owner. His central message was that retention deserves the same systematic attention as other core business functions.
The numbers made that message particularly confronting. In a single-practice case study, 708 of 893 regular patients associated with three departing therapists had not returned approximately 10–15 months after departure. That is 79%. It is an observation from one practice, not an industry-wide loss rate or proof that every non-return was caused by a resignation. Nick also presented Australian research involving 660 eligible clinicians across physiotherapy, chiropractic and osteopathy. Median tenure in the most recent completed role was 24 months for physiotherapists, compared with 30 months for chiropractors and 36 months for osteopaths.
Leading retention drivers across the three professions in the research presented.
Nick’s response
His response had four parts: an employment model linking clear productivity expectations with rewarding remuneration; a regular rhythm of conversations and feedback; identifying concerns early; and maintaining a recruitment pipeline. His planes-in-the-air analogy distinguished current staff, people being interviewed or onboarded, and potential future employees.
Ask each clinician: What is working well here, what is getting in your way, and what would make the next year better? Follow up on what you hear.
Build safety for leaders as well as teams
Winnie Wu | The Clinic Project
Winnie spoke about the emotional cost of leading through rapid growth and team change. Despite being an experienced leader, she described second-guessing decisions, hesitating to communicate standards, taking on problems others could solve and feeling isolated. Creating safety for everyone else had come at the expense of her own.
Capability
Give people room to solve problems and build confidence.
Clarity
State what you need and what a satisfactory outcome looks like.
Support
Have trusted people with whom you can discuss difficult issues.
Three habits that can limit team capability
The rescuer
Steps in before the team has a chance to learn.
The protector
Absorbs the burden and shields everyone else.
The rapid responder
Always provides the answer instead of inviting ideas.
Separate ideas from decisions
Generate ideas without judging first; then evaluate and decide. Written or anonymous input can help quieter team members contribute.
Choose one recurring problem you usually solve. Ask a team member to propose a solution, agree on the boundaries and set a review date.
Make emotional intelligence a daily habit
Jade Scott | GrowthRx
Jade presented emotional intelligence as a leadership advantage that can be learned and practised. How we recognise emotions, respond under pressure and connect with others shapes feedback, mentoring, difficult conversations and the patient experience.
Five elements to practise
Self-awareness
Know your strengths and blind spots. Read the room and seek feedback.
Regulation
Notice your emotions. Stay calm under pressure and be open when something is difficult.
Motivation
Connect effort with meaningful goals and focus on the outcome.
Empathy
Understand the other person’s perspective and experience.
Social skills
Build relationships, communicate clearly and create a positive team culture.
The interaction matters
Jade’s personal story of pregnancy, bereavement and hospital care showed the difference compassionate communication can make. Be present, notice what is not being said and maintain healthy boundaries.
Before your next challenging conversation, write down the outcome you need and one question that will help you understand the other person’s perspective.
Keep the person at the centre of care
Rachael Moses | National Health Service (NHS), UK
Rachael explored what it means to preserve the humanistic values of physiotherapy in a world shaped by trauma, conflict and changing expectations. Drawing on clinical leadership, military and humanitarian experience, she connected the profession’s history with its responsibility to patients and communities today.
Listen deeply
Understand the person’s story and lived experience.
Share decisions
Build the plan with patients, carers and communities.
Cultural humility
Respect different experiences, identities and perspectives.
Psychosocial lens
Include psychological and social factors in care.
Look beyond the treatment room
Community partnerships, advocacy and cultural inclusion strengthen the profession’s contribution. Mentoring and supportive workplaces help clinicians sustain this approach.
What gets in the way? High caseloads, commercial pressure, emotional fatigue, discrimination and a narrow focus on pathology.
At your next clinical meeting, discuss a case through two questions: What matters to this person, and how did that change our plan?
Design a supported patient journey
Winnie Wu | The Clinic Project
Winnie’s second presentation explored hybrid physiotherapy: combining in-person clinical expertise with digital education, check-ins, community and accountability. She argued that patients value an outcome and a supported journey, rather than simply a bundle of appointments.
One multidisciplinary program example from the presentation. Satisfaction is not a measure of clinical effectiveness.
A supported journey between appointments
Assess
Goals, needs and suitability
Plan
A personalised pathway
Educate
Short, usable resources
Check in
Support and accountability
Review
Progress and outcomes
Five tests before building a program
Existing expertise
Work you already do well
Clear eligibility
Who the program is for
Persistent problem
A meaningful need to address
Willingness to pay
Value patients recognise
Team passion
A service the team believes in
Start small
Gauge interest, pilot with around five patients, measure experience and outcomes, then refine.
Map one patient journey from assessment to the desired outcome. Identify one gap where a check-in, short resource or clearer plan could help.
Put AI to work on a practical task
Julian Moore | Strategic Membership Solutions
Julian demonstrated an AI assistant called Alex handling patient enquiries, bookings and administrative work. His session made applied AI tangible: start with a task that repeatedly consumes staff time, then explore where an assistant could support the team.
What Alex demonstrated or explored
Patient enquiries
Answer common questions and help people prepare for their first visit.
Appointments
Check availability, book appointments and send confirmations.
Communication
Support email, phone interactions and follow-ups.
Connected systems
Explore links to calendars, practice software, payments and accounting.
A useful pilot rhythm
Find a time drain. Choose one task. Set boundaries and a human handover. Check accuracy, service quality and time saved.
Demonstrated capabilities and integrations need checking in your own systems. Any clinical application requires separate assessment and oversight.
List your five most repetitive administrative tasks. Select one low-risk pilot, such as drafting answers to common non-clinical enquiries for staff review.
Define what enough looks like
Cate Boyd | Eltham Physiotherapy Centre
Cate described the experience of growing Eltham Physiotherapy Centre from two to 16 physiotherapists, while asking a more personal question: how do you define enough? Reaching a larger scale was only part of the story. Maintaining a strong practice, relationships and a satisfying role also required deliberate choices.
What helps a practice stay sustainable?
Build the support team
Leadership, practice management and reception are central to a sustainable clinic.
Develop your people
Mentoring, protected time and clear progression support staff development.
Use what you have well
Invest in the environment and make good use of existing space and systems.
Play to your strengths
Shape the owner’s mix of clinical and management work around where they add value.
Define enough
Consider owner time, income, team stability and patient care. Maintaining a good practice can be a deliberate goal.
Write a one-sentence definition of a successful practice three years from now. Include how much you want to work, as well as what you want the business to achieve.
Give your attention to what you can influence
Toni Powell | Keynote speaker and author
Toni used the story of people becoming increasingly angry about a parked yellow car to explore stress and perspective. Their frustration consumed time and energy without changing the situation. Watching it prompted her to recognise similar patterns in her own reactions to things she could not change.
YES · Take action
Choose a practical next step.
NO · Find perspective
Redirect attention to what you can influence.
Everyday ways to reset
Notice the good
Celebrate small wins and practise gratitude.
Reset your energy
Spend time outdoors and make time for movement.
Connect and laugh
Find humour, play and time with other people.
Protecting your energy sits alongside addressing genuine workload, staffing and workplace problems.
When something keeps replaying in your head, ask: Is there an action I can take? If so, choose it. If not, consciously redirect your attention. This sits alongside addressing real workload and workplace problems.
Choose one change this month
Start with the idea that addresses your clinic’s biggest pressure point. Give it an owner, agree on a practical next step and set a date to review the result.
Get a clearer picture of your clinic
Many of these conference themes start with understanding your own clinic. A Rate My Clinic assessment brings together client and team feedback with industry benchmarks to help you identify strengths, uncover issues and decide where to focus.
Your clients
Understand their experience and what matters to them.
Your team
Hear their views on leadership, culture and working in your clinic.
Your benchmarks
See how your clinic compares with others in allied health.
Turn these insights into practical priorities for your clinic.
Explore the Rate My Clinic assessment →