Colleen O’Connell

Dr. Colleen O'Connell

Principal Applicant

Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Dalhousie University

Physiatrist, Medical Director and Research Chief at Horizon’s Stan Cassidy Centre for Rehabilitation


NMD4C Involvement: Pillar 2: Clinical Research, Pillar 3: Clinical Practice Research, Theme 5: Open Science

Research Interests: Applied technologies for mobility impairment and function, patient reported outcomes, Strokes, ASL

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Biography

Truly an East-coaster, and never far from water, Colleen completed medical school at Memorial in Newfoundland, residency in PM&R at Dalhousie in Nova Scotia and is Medical Director at New Brunswick’s Stan Cassidy Centre for Rehabilitation and Clinical Research Director of UNB Institute of Biomedical Engineering. She married a Campbell from Prince Edward Island, thus establishing connection with all four Atlantic provinces. She is Professor at Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor at the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Kinesiology. Believing in the strength of collaboration, or perhaps having difficulty saying no, she is a member of many networks: Canadian ALS Research Network, Praxis Spinal Cord Institute, Canadian Neurologic Diseases Network, Atlantic Mobility Action Project. Research interests and outputs are broad, reflecting a tendency to being an early adopter (FOMO), including applied technologies for mobility impairment and function, patient reported outcomes. Development of best practice recommendations are priorities, and she contributes as member of the PVA SCI Guidelines Consortium, Heart and Stroke’s Best Practices Advisory Committee, Canadian SCI Pain Guidelines Committee, ALS Canada Best Practice Recommendations Working Group and the Canadian Thoracic Society Home Mechanical Ventilation Guidelines Committee.  

International health work predates medical training. With husband Jeff and a team of rehabilitation volunteers she founded Team Canada Healing Hands in 2002, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing rehabilitation capacity in lower resourced countries. She has had opportunity to work in areas of rehabilitation care, training, and disaster response in many countries. She is chair of the Disaster committee of the International Spinal Cord Society, and is currently appointed to the Spinal Cord Injury technical working group of the WHO Emergency Medical Teams and SCI Modules for national health systems, and steering committee of the WHO World Rehabilitation Alliance.  

She is proud mom of her young adult sons Sam and Vénel. In another life, she would have been an adventure travel agent. 

 


Recent Publications

Slayter, J, Casey, L, Drost, D, McCullum, S, Christie, A, O'Connell, C et al.. A Psychometric Evaluation of Maximum Phonation Time and S/Z Ratio as Pragmatic Outcome Measures of Bulbar Function in Adults With Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Muscle Nerve. 2025. PMID:41388725

Chan, V, Gausper, A, Liu, A, Andras, LM, Illingworth, KD, Skaggs, DL et al.. Canadian Spine Society: 25th Annual Scientific Conference, February 25 to 28, 2025, Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu, La Malbaie, Charlevoix, Que., Canada. Can J Surg. 2025.68 (6suppl3)S58-S132 PMID:41386990

Ethans, K, Chaudhary, H, Casey, A, O'Connell, C, Nankar, M, Khandelwal, A et al.. ATTITUDES AND PRACTICE PATTERNS OF CANADIAN PHYSIATRISTS REGARDING MEDICAL CANNABIS. J Rehabil Med Clin Commun. 2025.8 43254 PMID:41356262

Yao, JK, Salbach, NM, Lindsay, MP, Nelson, MLA, Shi, J, O'Connell, C et al.. Canadian Stroke Best Practice Recommendations Rehabilitation, Recovery, and Community Participation Following Stroke, Part Three: Optimizing Activity and Community Participation Following Stroke , 7th Edition Update, 2025. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2025. PMID:41258868

Salbach, NM, Yao, JK, Lindsay, MP, Nelson, MLA, Shi, J, O'Connell, C et al.. Canadian Stroke Best Practice Recommendations Rehabilitation, Recovery, and Community Participation Following Stroke, Part Two: Delivery of Stroke Rehabilitation to Optimize Functional Recovery, 7th Edition Update 2025. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2026.105 (2)151-167 PMID:41257457

Nelson, M, Shi, J, Lindsay, MP, Salbach, NM, Yao, JK, Timpson, D et al.. Canadian Stroke Best Practice Recommendations: Rehabilitation, Recovery and Community Participation Following Stroke. Part One: Stroke Rehabilitation Planning for Optimal Care Delivery, 7th Edition Update 2025. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2026.105 (1)59-75 PMID:41257448

Schellenberg, KL, Caspar-Bell, G, Ellis, C, Johnston, W, King, A, King, M et al.. Best practice recommendations for the clinical care of spinal bulbar muscular atrophy. CMAJ. 2025.197 (31)E987-E999 PMID:40983380

Slayter, J, Casey, L, Drost, D, McCullum, S, Christie, A, O'Connell, C et al.. An Exploratory 12-Month Observational Study of Adults with Spinal Muscular Atrophy: Learning From Our Tools. Can J Neurol Sci. 2025. 1-10 PMID:40659577

Saucier, D, Bélanger, M, Liu, Z, Lavigne, E, O'Connell, C. Associations between long-term air pollution exposure and the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A matched case-control study. Environ Res. 2025.284 122232 PMID:40571082

Truong, J, Simmatis, L, Pommée, T, Abrahao, A, Adams, K, Chum, M et al.. Differentiating upper- and lower motor neuron diseases using automated acoustic analysis. Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener. 2025.26 (7-8)691-701 PMID:40450589

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