Dr. Paul Dijkstra is a Consultant Sport and Exercise Medicine Physician and Director of Medical Education at Aspetar, Qatar Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Hospital.
He has extensive clinical and leadership experience in elite sport including UK Athletics Chief Medical Officer to the Beijing and London Olympic Games and Head Quarters Doctor for Team England at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. He was the Local Organizing Committee Chief Medical Officer for the 12th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Doha, 2014 and the Deputy Medical Director, Local Organizing Committee, IAAF World Athletics Championships, Doha 2019.
As Director of Medical Education at Aspetar he is responsible for an extensive program of accredited Continuing Medical Education / Continuing Professional Development for all healthcare professionals at Aspetar. He provides oversight to Aspetar’s undergraduate and graduate student education programs, including fellowship programs. In addition to being a member of many fellowship steering committees at Aspetar, Dr Dijkstra acts as the chairperson for Aspetar’s Clinical Specialist Fellowship Committee. He is a member of the Qatar National Clinical Guideline and Pathway Committee as well as Qatar’s National Musculoskeletal Taskforce, and chairperson of Aspetar’s Clinical Guidelines and Pathway Committee.
Dr Dijkstra is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar and has published several papers in peer reviewed journals. He also contributed to book chapters – most recently on the team approach to Sport and Exercise Medicine in the fifth edition of Brukner & Khan’s Clinical Sports Medicine.
Dr Dijkstra is a DPhil Evidence-Based Health Care Candidate at the University of Oxford. His thesis aims to inform a more rigorous, inclusive and evidence-based approach to research on primary cam morphology.
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