Meet the Executive Committee

IFOMPT Executive Committee

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IFOMPT Executive Committee elected in October 2020

 
Laura Finucane-480
Laura Finucane, President IFOMPT
Laura Finucane is a consultant musculoskeletal physiotherapist specialising in spinal conditions. She has been a consultant since 2006 providing care for NHS patients.  She clinically leads a number of interface services who deliver an orthopaedic  triage service  for patients with musculoskeletal conditions.  Clinically she manages patients with back pain working closely with the spinal surgeon directly listing patients for surgical intervention when necessary.  She provides clinical support to extended scope practitioners specialising in other areas of musculoskeletal conditions.  Her role is to ensure clinicians maintain their competency and expertise to deliver the service.  She has been involved in developing pathways of care both locally and nationally.
She is affiliated to the University of Brighton as a fellow and is an external examiner and tutor for the masters course leading to membership to the Musculoskeletal Association of Chartered Physiotherapists (MACP). She is a clinical mentor to students on placement in clinical practice for a number of universities.
Laura’s special interest is in serious pathologies of the spine and she has presented  nationally and internationally.  She has  written a number of papers related to this subject and  teaches  at a postgraduate level.
Laura completed her Masters in manipulative physiotherapy in 2002.  She has written a number of chapters in ‘Neuromusculoskeletal Examination and Assessment’ and ‘Principles of Neuromusculoskeletal Treatment  and Management’ edited by Petty.  She is a reviewer for the Manual Therapy journal.  She was a member of the Executive Committee for the MACP and the MO delegate for IFOMPT  before stepping into the role as executive member of IFOMPT in October 2012.
Contact Laura:
Email: laura.finucane@ifompt.org
 
Paolo Sanzo, Vice President IFOMPT
Paolo Sanzo is an Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology and at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine at Lakehead University and the Director and Physiotherapist at Active Potential Rehabilitation Services.  He is also an instructor and examiner for the Orthopedic Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association and was elected as the past Member Organisation Delegate for Canada.  He was appointed to the Executive of IFOMPT in October 2017.
His research interests are in the area of rehabilitation and sports medicine.  More specifically, his research integrates the clinical, biomechanical, and physiological aspects of human movement and gait analysis.  It also includes the exploration of the medical and clinical uses and effects of extracorporeal shockwave therapy, the clinical application and rationale for the use of therapeutic taping, the biomechanical analysis of concussion, and length tension testing and the relationships between muscle and myofascial tissues in various musculoskeletal disorders.  Paolo has published articles in several peer-reviewed journals, authored four books on length tension testing techniques in the upper and lower quadrants, and serves as a reviewer for several journal titles.
Contact Paolo:
Email: paolo.sanzo@ifompt.org
Paolo Sanzo Profile Picture - November 2016
 
Reneee-465-700
Renée de Ruijter, Executive Committee Member at Large IFOMPT
Renée de Ruijter is a musculoskeletal and manipulative clinical physiotherapist and teacher in under- and post graduate education. She works with patients in a private practice in Switzerland, and teaches as a guest teacher at the master program of the Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana (SUPSI) and the bachelors programme of the Zürich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). She also is a teacher in the community based musculoskeletal and manual therapy program of the International Maitland Teacher’s Association (IMTA). Renée is a tutor and external examiner for various OMPT programmes throughout Europe.
Renée completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Manual Therapy at the University of Perth, Western Australia in 1994. Her area of specialty encompass treatment and management of patients with spinal disorders and headache patients.
In 2011 she finished her Masters of Medical Education at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Her special interests in education are postgraduate curriculum development, students centred tutoring and the use of standardised patients in healthcare education.
Renée has been a board member and the chairperson of the Swiss Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Association, SVOMP, editor of the SVOMP Journal and the Swiss MO delegate for IFOMPT.
Contact Renée:
Email: renee.deruijter@ifompt.org
Pierre Röscher, Secretary IFOMPT
Pierre Röscher is a clinician and part time lecturer based in Durban, South Africa. He has a special interest in orthopaedic manipulative physiotherapy, pelvic health conditions and chronic pain. Pierre is currently a PhD candidate and his research interest is in male pelvic dysfunction.
He previously served as the chairman on the Neuromusculoskeletal Physiotherapy Group (NMSPG), a special interest group of the South African Society of Physiotherapy (SASP) and he was South Africa’s representative on IFOMPT from 2016-2020.
He is a regular post graduate lecturer in the field of neuromuscularskletal physiotherapy and pelvic health.
Contact Pierre: 
Email: pierre.roscher@ifompt.org
Pierre-735-870
 
R Ellis (close) Super reduced size-609

Richard Ellis, Treasurer IFOMPT
Richard Ellis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiotherapy at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in New Zealand. He has taught within the department since 2004, and teaches on both the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the fields of musculoskeletal physiotherapy, manual and manipulative therapy, ultrasound imaging and research. He won the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences (AUT) Teaching Excellence Award in 2012. He is is currently a Co-Director of the Health and Rehabilitation Research Institute at AUT, leading the Active Living and Rehabilitation: Aotearoa New Zealand research group within HRRI.
Within IFOMPT, Richard was a member of the Advisory Group on Research and Knowledge Translation since 2016 and he chaired this group from 2019. He is a part of the webinar presenting team.  He is a current IFOMPT Ambassador for the IFOMPT2020 Conference in Melbourne (now to be held in 2022, due to COVID19 pandemic), assisting the Scientific Committee with abstract reviews and also with conference promotion. Richard has attended the last three IFOMPT conference, held in Rotterdam, Quebec, and Glasgow.
Contact Richard:
Email: richard.ellis@ifompt.org


IFOMPT Office

IMG 0014-9-793

The IFOMPT office is situated in Auckland, New Zealand. 



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Ingrid du Toit - Executive Director of IFOMPT
Ingrid holds a B Econ (Hons) degree from the University of the Free State in South Africa and has worked as an agricultural economist for more than 25 years. She also gained experience in organisational development and the management of networks in a regional and Pan-African context by serving on a number of DFID and World Bank project teams.
After relocating to New Zealand, she was appointed as the Executive Officer of the New Zealand Manipulative Physiotherapists Association (NZMPA) in October 2010, a position she held until April 2018.  In addition to this, she served as the Office Manager of IFOMPT as of April 2013 and  became the Executive Director in February 2017.
Contact Ingrid:
P O Box 30 1295, Albany
Auckland 0752
NEW ZEALAND
Tel: + 64 211 878 753
Email:  admin@ifompt.org