Contact Details
- Phone
- +64 3 479 9092
- helen.harcombe@otago.ac.nz
- Position
- Senior Lecturer
- Department
- Department of Preventive and Social Medicine (Dunedin)
- Qualifications
- BPhty MPH PhD
- Research summary
- Injury prevention, subsequent injury, musculoskeletal disorders e.g. among nurses, physical activity
- Teaching
- Undergraduate: POPH 192 Population Health
- Programme Director, Bachelor of Health Sciences
- Early Professional Experience (2nd year Medicine)
- Thesis supervision: master’s and PhD research
- Memberships
- Physiotherapy New Zealand
- Australasian Epidemiology Association
- Australasian Injury Prevention Network
- Clinical
- Musculoskeletal physiotherapy
Research
Helen is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine. She is an epidemiologist with a clinical background as a physiotherapist and a PhD in Public Health. Her research focuses on enhancing and improving what happens to people following injury, in particular preventing subsequent injury. Other areas of research include musculoskeletal disorders, particularly among nurses.
She is currently leading a major trauma research grant funded by the Accident Compensation Corporation and administered by the Health Quality and Safety Commission examining major trauma and comorbidities.
Recently she led a feasibility study funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) focused on preventing subsequent injuries and has been Co-Investigator on two other HRC-funded projects examining outcomes of injury. She was Co-Principal Investigator on the HRC-funded Subsequent Injury Study (SInS) and has previously held a Strategy to Advance Research (STAR) PhD scholarship and a Health Research Council of New Zealand Occupational Health Career Development Award.