2020 Speakers

FRANCESCO CERRITELLI

Chair – COME Collaboration, is an osteopath DO with broad interests in osteopathic and touch research, neuroscience and health science focusing on interdisciplinary aspects of evidence based medicine. Francesco has published several scientific papers in this field. In 2008, he founded the European Institute for Evidence Based Osteopathic Medicine (EBOM), a non-profit research association, then transformed it into a not-for-profit foundation named COME Collaboration in 2014. In 2011, Francesco attended the Master in Public Health at Imperial College London and in 2018 obtained a PhD in Neuroscience at University of Chieti-Pescara focusing on fMRI and the interoceptive aspect of osteopathy. Francesco has received several international prizes in relation to the scientific activities conducted.

PATRICK VAN DUN

Patrick van Dun has a private practice as an osteopath in Mechelen (Belgium) and Habichtswald (Germany).
He is a Board of Trustees member of the Centre for Osteopathic MEdicine Collaboration (COME), Pescara (Italy). He is the chair and co-founder of the Commission for Osteopathic Research, Practice and Promotion vzw (CORPP). He got his M.Sc. degree in Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy at the Catholic University Leuven in 1989 and completed his osteopathy studies at COC, organised at the Free University of Brussels, in 1993. Patrick has been the Scientific Director of the German College for Osteopathic Medicine (GCOM), Wiesbaden (Germany) from 2000 till 2006 and Head of Research of Osteopathy, Department Clinical Medicine and Biotechnology, Danube University Krems (Austria) from 2010 till 2012. Patrick has been a research collaborator at the Free University of Brussels, Department of Osteopathic Sciences, Research Unit in Osteopathy, Brussels (Belgium) from 2012 till 2016.

PAUL VAUCHER

Board of Trusteess COME
Paul Vaucher is full professor at the Department of Health, University of Applied Science and Arts Western Switzerland. He is a trained practitioner in osteopathic care with post-graduate degrees in health rights, clinical trials and applied neuroscience. He has 19 years of experience in community health with over 60 original indexed publications. His fields of interest are clinical tests, predictive rules, implementation science, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

JERRY DRAPER-RODI

Dr Jerry Draper-Rodi is a Senior Research Fellow at the UCO and an academic clinician. Jerry was awarded a Professional Doctorate in Osteopathy in 2016. His research was on the acceptability, feasibility and likely impact of a biopsychosocially-informed e-learning programme for non-specific LBP on experienced osteopathic practitioners' attitudes to back pain. He has presented his research at numerous conferences, including IFOMPT, SBPR, iO, CAMstrand and ICOM; and published articles in peer-reviewed journals and a book chapter.

MARCO GABUTTI

Marco Gabutti initially graduated as an industrial engineer before reconsidering direction and moving into osteopathy. Marco taught basic physics and then cranial osteopathy in different osteopathic colleges. He is currently working with his wife, an osteopath too, in Normandy. He regularly teaches CPD courses about the possible evolutions of the cranial model and, together with Jerry Draper-Rodi and Laurent Fabre, teaches on an integrated course about the biopsychosocial model and the latest advances in pain management.

RAFAEL ZEGARRA-PARODI

Rafael Zegarra-Parodi is an osteopath practising in Paris. He has also been heavily involved in osteopathic education and research with previous posts at the A.T. Still Research Institute in Kirksville, USA and the UCO in London. Currently, he is an Associate Editor of IJOM and a member of the COME Collaboration BoT. He is now involved in the development of an evidence-based framework for a clinical application into modern care of the Body-Mind-Spirit paradigm, one tenet of current osteopathic principles inherited from A.T. Still interaction with Native American healing practices.

HILARY ABBEY

Hilary Abbey qualified as an osteopath in 1979 and currently works at the UCO as an Associate Professor and Head of Research. Her doctoral research involved developing a psychologically-informed course to integrate acceptance and mindfulness-based interventions with osteopathic care for patients with persistent musculoskeletal pain, which led to the creation of the Osteopathy, Mindfulness and Acceptance Programme (OsteoMAP). Hilary's research interests include exploring how osteopaths can use biopsychosocial models of care effectively and how osteopathic touch-based treatments can influence patients' embodied sense of self and their interoceptive awareness.

ELODIE CAMIER LEMOINE

Elodie Camier-Lemoine earned her PhD in Philosophy (with a focus on medical ethics regarding end-of-life) at Jean Moulin University (Lyon, France). She is currently project manager at the Centre of Ethics, in the region of Auvergne Rhône-Alpes in France. Her missions include teaching and training health-care students and professionals, conferences, study groups and the organisation of public debate, in the field of medical ethics. She also teaches bioethics at Lyon Catholic University, for students in science, with a focus on the topic of new technologies.

ALEXIS DUBAS

Alexis is an osteopath graduated from the University College of Osteopathy in London. He endorsed an evidence-oriented practice in osteopathy in England after graduation and returned to Paris 2 years ago. Osteopathy has considerably enlarged his vision of the human and he became interested in the concept of a Bio-Psycho-Socio-Spiritual approach for managing musculoskeletal pain. He became involved in CPD training as an educator around that specific professional skills. Currently, he specializes in sports osteopathy and is a yoga teacher. He is now involved in the development of an evidence-based framework for clinical application in modern care of the Body-Mind-Spirit paradigm, especially in meditative practices.

JULIE ELLWOOD

Dr Julie Ellwood graduated from the College of Osteopaths in London in 2004 and completed her Professional Doctorate in Osteopathy through the University College of Osteopathy in London in April 2016. Her research study was investigating the cause of unsettled infant behaviour with particular focus on postural asymmetry and was conducted under the supervision of Professor Alf Nicholson, paediatrician at the National Children’s Hospital in Dublin. The findings of this study have been published in the peer reviewed European Journal of Pediatrics. Julie has since co-authored several systematic reviews on manual therapy for paediatric conditions including unsettled infant behaviour and colic, plagiocephaly and congenital muscular torticollis.

Julie has an MSc in Applied Haematology, a Fellowship in Biomedical Science and Diploma in Sports Medicine. She is the mother of four children and established the Babybloom clinic for the multidisciplinary care of the mother-baby dyad in Strandhill on the west coast of Ireland in 2013.

GERARD ALVAREZ

Gerard Alvarez is a physiotherapist and osteopath DO practising in Barcelona. Besides their clinical activity, he is a lecturer in several osteopathic and non-osteopathic institutions in Spain. As a researcher, Gerard has broad interests in manual therapy-related topics and is currently focused on methodological aspects of manual therapy research. He is finishing his PhD on "Methodological challenges in the assessment of manual therapy interventions" on the Epidemiology and Public Health Department of The Hospital de Sant Pau (Iberoamerican Cochrane Center - Barcelona). He is an active member of COME Collaboration and the Director of the Spain National Center (COME NACE-ES)

STÉPHANE BEAUME

Stéphane Beaume is a registered osteopath in South East France. After his diploma in osteopathy, he obtained a human movement science degree (2011) and a public health degree (2014) before he completed a research master's degree in international and humanitarian health law (2015). Passionate by the terminology, he has published the « Dictionnaire de médecine ostéopathique» (Dictionary of osteopathy) edited by Elsevier-Masson (2014) and translated in italian, «Dizionario di osteopatia», edited by Demi (2017), and he wrote «Ostéopathie : quel avenir en France ? », a book about evolutions of osteopathy in public health and french health law orientations edited by Tita edition (2016). He has a special interest in human sciences, which are the subject of his last papers published in several juridic peer-reviewed journals as «Médecine et Droit» and «Revue Droit et Santé». He combined his research with lectures in several french university faculties (Avignon, Clermont-Ferrand, Metz and also faculty of medicine of Nancy) and he currently teaches law of osteopathy inAvignon school of osteopathy (IFO-GA). Since 2019 he is a judicial expert at the court of appeal of Nîmes, acting as osteopath and sportosteopath expert, for the first time in France.

Pierre-Luc L'Hermite

Dr. Pierre-Luc L’Hermite graduated from Institut Toulousain d’Ostéopathie in 2011 and also graduated from the University of Toulouse I Capitole with a Master degree of law in 2013 and a Doctorate of law in 2018. His research study was about the concept of “medicality” that he created dealing with philosophical issues in the field of medicine. Since his PhD he is a lecturer in osteopathic schools and also in University of medicine, University of Lyon “Philosophy of osteopathy” and University of Strasbourg “Teaching osteopathy”. As a member of a laboratory in Toulouse Institut Maurice Hauriou he is involved in researches and teaching in the field of medical law, ethics, deontology and epistemology. He wrote sevral articles in medical and juridic journals, and he also published in 2020 a book edited by Ellipses “Introduction à la science ostéopathique – Approche épistémologique” (Introduction to the science of osteopathy – An epistemologic approach).