• Chief Investigator and MRFF Trial Manager, Centre for Pain Impact, NeuRA
• Research Fellow, Centre for Pain Impact, NeuRA
• Lecturer, School of Health Sciences, UNSW

Dr Rodrigo Rizzo is a Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Research Fellow at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and the School of Health Sciences, University of New South Wales (UNSW). After nearly 20 years in clinical practice working in multidisciplinary pain centres, he transitioned to research focused on improving chronic pain care.

Dr Rizzo pioneered the integration of pain science education with principles of clinical hypnosis for chronic pain management. His research focuses on implementing evidence-based practice in primary care and developing or optimising non-pharmacological interventions for chronic pain. His work leverages digital technologies—including artificial intelligence and mobile applications—to help close the evidence-to-practice gap.

In recent years, Dr Rizzo has secured more than $2 million in competitive research funding as a principal investigator and has published high-quality studies, including clinical trials, systematic reviews, mediation analyses, and qualitative research. His work has reached large audiences through media coverage, clinician training programs, and implementation across pain clinics.

To increase access to evidence-based care, he has established partnerships with digital health companies and developed scalable digital infrastructure, including the Relio app and the AID-Back platform, to support the delivery and evaluation of innovative primary care interventions. He also initiated collaborations with the UNSW Department of Computer Science to develop AI-powered conversational agents for healthcare innovation.

• AID-Back platform
• ADHERE
• GAIA-FT