Mike Carpenter

Mike completed his BSc in Physiotherapy from the University of Southampton in 2007. He went on to complete a MSc in Advanced Neuromusculoskeletal Physiotherapy from Kings College London (KCL) in 2010.

After initially qualifying Mike worked in a junior rotation post within Portsmouth City Teaching Primary Care Trust, whilst simultaneously working part time within the academy and youth teams of Portsmouth FC. He gained his first senior position at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust in 2009 and was granted a years sabbatical later that year to pursue his Advanced Practice MSc. Having completed his MSc he returned to work clinically at Ashford and St Peter’s gaining a position as a Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist. He also took up his first academic position within KCL as a lecturer, working on the BSc and pre-registration MSc Physiotherapy teaching programmes. He progressed his academic career to MSK teaching fellow and subsequently worked as part of the teaching team for the Advanced Physiotherapy Practice MSc at KCL – including being Deputy Programme Lead for a year. In 2014 he became an extended scope practitioner in spinal and persistent pain management within Ashford and St Peter’s.

Mike joined Connect Health in September 2018 as an Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioner working within the community pain management arm of the integrated MSK service in Herts Valley. In Feb 2019, Mike was successful in progressing into a Developing Consultant Physiotherapist role and with this came an increased clinical lead focus and he took on a role as Clinical Lead for the Herts Valley service. Mike currently splits his time between continued clinical practice, service level clinical leadership and national level developing consultant based projects.

Mike is a keen runner and in 2017 he came 6th in the South of England Athletics 10000m track championships (it’s also important to mention, only 6 senior men entered that year!).

5 March 2020

Mike joined Connect Health in September 2018. He became part of the Clinical Leadership team for the Herts Valley Musculoskeletal (MSK) Services, having previously worked in the NHS as an Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioner. He previously worked as a MSK Teaching Fellow on the Advanced Physiotherapy MSc programme at King’s College London, amongst other previous roles within the NHS, sports and academia.

Mike undertook his Developing Consultant Programme, through Connect Health, completing a 2.5 year training programme to become a Consultant Physiotherapist in 2022. He worked as the deputy head of MSK before moving into his current role. His clinical and research interests are based around the assessment and management of persistent and disabling low back pain and his passion is in integrating care, communities and people through personalised care.