The Society of Musculoskeletal Medicine (SOMM) has been very fortunate to have Karen Middleton, recently retired as CEO of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, as its President for many years and we thank her for her valuable contribution to SOMM and wish her well as she retires from that role as well.
Professor Karen Middleton CBE was the CSP’s first woman chief executive, and also the first to be a member of the physiotherapy profession.
She was made a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) for advancing the physiotherapy profession, developing leadership capacity and promoting professionalism, through her role as Chief Allied Health Profession Officer at NHS England, before joining the CSP as Chief Executive in February 2014.
Karen became a Fellow of the then Society of Orthopaedic Medicine in the 1990s and has taught the musculoskeletal medicine approach to physiotherapists and GPs on a national and international basis. The courses have since developed to be multiprofessional, to reflect the needs of our modern health service provision.
Before Karen retired, we interviewed her to reflect on her amazing achievements and the role SOMM played in directing her own career. Her insights into the future direction of physiotherapy and the allied health professions in general, make for very interesting listening.
Karen referred to the Chief Medical Officer’s 2023 annual report and how it focussed on health in an aging society and the increase of multi-morbidities. She felt that having generalist skills to help these patients would be beneficial and would be an opportunity for physiotherapists particularly to focus on.
To view the interview in full on YouTube, please click here.