Prof Suzanne McDonough

Professor Suzanne McDonough is a Professor and Head of RCSI School of Physiotherapy, is an honorary Professor at the University of Otago NZ, and a visiting Professor with the University of Southampton. Suzanne obtained her undergraduate degree in physiotherapy at University College Dublin (UCD) in 1989; was awarded her PhD in neurophysiology from Newcastle University, UK, in 1995; and a higher diploma in healthcare (acupuncture) in 2002 from UCD.

Professor McDonough has over a decade of experience as Professor of Health and Rehabilitation at Ulster University prior to her appointment at RCSI. During her time there, she played a lead role in developing research capacity amongst physiotherapists and other allied health professionals, both nationally and internationally. Suzanne has successfully supervised 30 PhD students to date.

Professor McDonough has expertise in, and has published extensively on the design and development of physical activity interventions in older adults and adults with a range of long-term conditions (low back pain, COPD, severe mental illness). Working across these conditions has highlighted the common barriers to being active and the particular challenges of multi-morbidity. Professor McDonough has conducted/or is conducting a body of work pertinent to this area i.e., systematic and scoping reviews in physical activity and sedentary behaviour, its measurement, intervention design and conduct of feasibility and main RCTs using mixed methods approaches. Professor McDonough also has experience of physical activity promotion as part of self-management interventions.