Dr. Paul Dijkstra is a Consultant Sport and Exercise Medicine Physician and Director of Medical Education at Aspetar Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Hospital in Doha, Qatar. He is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar and has an extended contract affiliation with the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences at the University of Oxford. He has extensive clinical and leadership experience in sport including UK Athletics Chief Medical Officer to the Beijing and London Olympic Games.
Paul completed a DPhil in Evidence-Based Health Care at the University of Oxford and is a founding member of the Young Athlete’s Hip Research (YAHiR) Collaborative. His thesis explored ways to improve research quality on primary cam morphology, a very common morphology that develops in the hips of maturing athletes due to sports load.
In 2024, he chaired the first Artificial Intelligence in Sports Medicine and Science Symposium at the 7th IOC World Conference on Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport in Monaco. Paul has published several peer reviewed papers and book chapters. Most recently, he co-edited, with Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, the 7th edition of How to read a paper: The basics of evidence-based healthcare.
Qualifications
- 1991: MBChB (University of Pretoria, South Africa)
- 1995: BSc Honors (Pharmacology - Cum Laude)(University of North West, South Africa)
- 2004: MPhil (Sports Medicine)(University of Cape Town, South Africa)
- 2011: Fellow of the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine (UK, GMC Specialist Register)
Career Achievements
- 2008 – January 2013: Chief Medical Officer to UK Athletics
- 2008 and 2012: Leading the UK Athletics medical team to the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games in Beijing and London
- 2009 and 2011: Leading the UK Athletics medical team to the Berlin and Daegu IAAF World Track and Field Championships
- 2008-2012: Chairman of the UK Athletics Medical Commission and Member of the British Olympic Association Medical Commission
- 1999-2005: Associate professor lecturing Sports Medicine at the North West University School of Biokinetics, Recreation and Sport Science, Potchefstroom, South Africa
- 1994: Lead Team Physician for South Africa to the First Military World Games in Rome, Italy
- 1994: Medical Officer at the inauguration of Mr Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa, Pretoria