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
LinkedIn profileResearchGate profile
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
Truong, J, Simmatis, L, Pommee, 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. 1-11 PMID:40450589
Guilcher, SJT, Cadel, L, Everall, AC, Kaiser, A, Cimino, SR, El-Kotob, R et al.. Identifying what matters to adults with mobility limitations regarding their experiences with medications: A concept mapping study. PLoS One. 2025.20 (5)e0323877 PMID:40408533
Gauvreau, G, Behlim, T, Ng, P, Hodgkinson, V, Selby, K, Mah, JK et al.. Respiratory and Bulbar Support in Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type I Treated with Nusinersen. Can J Neurol Sci. 2025. 1-8 PMID:40357918
O'Connell, C, Rodrigue, X, Hodgkinson, V, Henley, K, Slayter, J, Aleman, A et al.. Thinking outside the box: A re-evaluation of Canadian recommended outcome measures in adult spinal muscular atrophy - report of a national consensus workshop. J Neuromuscul Dis. 2025. 22143602251336076 PMID:40356341
Shefner, JM, Cudkowicz, ME, Genge, A, Hardiman, O, Al-Chalabi, A, Andrews, JA et al.. Reldesemtiv in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Results From the COURAGE-ALS Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Neurol. 2025.82 (5)477-485 PMID:40126464
Saucier, D, Bélanger, M, Liu, Z, Lavigne, E, O'Connell, C. Associations between water exposure and the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a matched case-control study. Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener. 2025.26 (3-4)281-289 PMID:39840922
Slayter, J, Casey, L, McCullum, S, Drost, D, Banks, A, O'Connell, C et al.. An exploratory qualitative assessment of patient and clinician perspectives on patient-reported outcome measures and disease-modifying therapies in adults with spinal muscular atrophy. J Rehabil Med. 2025.57 jrm41254 PMID:39810476
O'Connell, C, Armstrong, J, De la Cerna-Luna, R, Ganvir, S, Arnillas Brigneti, P. Perspective of the World Rehabilitation Alliance: Global Strategies to Strengthen Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Services in Health Systems. Healthcare (Basel). 2024.12 (22) PMID:39595510
Hitzig, SL, Zidarov, D, MacKay, C, Dilkas, S, Alshehri, F, Russell, R et al.. An environmental scan of limb loss rehabilitation centers across Canada. Prosthet Orthot Int. 2025.49 (2)248-255 PMID:39503467
O'Connell, C, Kavanaugh, MS, Cummings, C, Genge, A. How to break the news in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/motor neuron disease: practical guidelines from experts. Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener. 2025.26 (1-2)5-14 PMID:39258740
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