Dr Neil O'Connell
Reader - Physiotherapy
Mary Seacole 3rd Floor-Bay 19
- Email: neil.oconnell@brunel.ac.uk
- Tel: +44 (0)1895 268814
- Physiotherapy
- Physiotherapy and Physician Associate
- Department of Health Sciences
- College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences
Summary
Neil is a Reader in the Physiotherapy Division of the Department of Health Sciences. He divides his time between teaching and research and previously worked as a musculoskeletal physiotherapist. Neil's research interests focus on the evidence based management of persistent pain and he has published extensively in this area. He also leads and teaches modules on clinical research methods and evidence based practice for pre- and post-graduate clinicians.
Neil was the Co-ordinating editor for the Cochrane Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care (PaPaS) group from 2020-23 and is a member of Cochrane's central editorial board. He was a member of the Guideline Development Group for the UK's National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) 2016 clinical guideline on the management of low back pain and sciatica and was a specialist committee member for the NICE Quality Standard on that topic. Neil is the current Chair of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) Methods, Evidence Synthesis and Implementation Special Interest Group (MESIGIG).
Qualifications
PhD, MSc, BSc (Hons), PGCert
Responsibility
Committee Responsibilities:
Department lead for the 2021 Research Excellence Framework exercise
Department Director of Postgraduate Research Studies
Departm,ent Director for Research
Administration Responsibilities:
Module Leader:
PH5640 Research Methods for Health Sciences
PH5603 Quantitative Methods and Design for Health Science Research
External Activities:
Co-ordinating editor of the Cochrane Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care (PaPaS) review group 2020-23
Member of NICE Centre for Guidelines, Expert Advisors Panel
Past member of the guideline development group for the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline "Management of low back pain and sciatica".
Past senior commissioning editor and contributer to the science blog “Body in Mind”. This blog represents an international collaboration of researchers with an interest in chronic pain, perception and the brain and aims to present current research in a format that is accessible and fun for the lay-reader. The blog archives can be found here: https://www.iasp-pain.org/content-type/body-in-mind/
Teaching Interests:
Chronic pain, evidence based practice, research methods, musculoskeletal physiotherapy
Newest selected publications
Wewege, MA., Bagg, MK., Jones, MD., Ferraro, MC., Cashin, AG., Rizzo, RRN., et al. (2023) 'Comparative effectiveness and safety of analgesic medicines for adults with non-specific acute low back pain: systematic review and network meta-analysis'. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 380 (8376). pp. 1 - 15. ISSN: 1759-2151 Open Access Link
O'Connell, NE., Moore, RA., Stewart, G., Fisher, E., Hearn, L., Eccleston, C. and et al. (2023) 'Reply to Monticone'. Pain, 164 (4). pp. e239 - e241. ISSN: 0304-3959 Open Access Link
Williams, ACDC., Hearn, L., Moore, RA., Stewart, G., Fisher, E., Eccleston, C. and et al. (2023) 'Effective quality control in the medical literature: investigation and retraction vs inaction'. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 0 (in press, corrected proof). pp. 1 - 2. ISSN: 0895-4356 Open Access Link
Bagg, MK., Wand, BM., Cashin, AG., Lee, H., Hubscher, M., Stanton, TR., et al. (2022) 'Effect of graded sensorimotor retraining on pain intensity in patients with chronic low back pain: a randomized clinical trial'. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, 328 (5). pp. 430 - 439. ISSN: 0098-7484 Open Access Link
MacRae, CS., Roche, AJ., Sinnett, TJ. and O'Connell, NE. (2022) 'What is the evidence for efficacy, effectiveness and safety of surgical interventions for plantar fasciopathy? A systematic review'. PLoS One, 17 (5). pp. 1 - 23. ISSN: 1932-6203 Open Access Link