Prof Helen French

Prof Helen French is an Associate Professor in the RCSI School of Physiotherapy. She qualified from UCD School of Physiotherapy, Dublin in 1992. She worked as a Senior Physiotherapist in Orthopaedics in the Meath Hospital, Dublin and subsequently in Tallaght Hospital, Dublin. She obtained a MSc. (Physiotherapy) in 1999 in TCD School of Physiotherapy, Dublin. From 2001 she worked as a Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist (Musculoskeletal) in Tallaght Hospital, Dublin before her move to RCSI School of Physiotherapy, RCSI in 2004. She has held previous positions of Honorary Secretary of the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists (ISCP), Chairperson of the ISCP Education and Professional Development standing committee, Chairperson of the Chartered Physiotherapists in Musculoskeletal Therapy (CPMT) clinical interest group, member of the ISCP International Affairs committee and members of the Education Working Group of the European Region of the World Congress of Physical Therapy (WCPT). Prof French completed her PhD in 2011, funded by a Health Research Board (HRB) Fellowship for the Therapy Professions and was awarded a HRB-Fulbright Scholarship (2017-2018) which she undertook in Boston University. Her research areas of interest are rehabilitation interventions for hip osteoarthritis and other hip joint pathologies and delviery of best-practice evidence-based care for people with musculoskeletal conditions. She is currently leading a feasibility trial on education and exercise for gluteal tendinopathy https://www.leapireland.eu/ and a mixed-methods study to develop a model of care for osteoarthritis in primary care in Ireland https://enact-ireland.eu/, both of which are funded by the HRB. She is also co-principal investigator on the Training load and injury risk in Schoolboys’ Rugby: the SCRUm cohort study Phase 2, funded by the Irish Rugby Football Union Charitable Trust (IRFUCT).