Dr. Roula Kotsifaki

Dr. Roula Kotsifaki is the Head of the Assessment Lab at Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital in Doha, Qatar, a world-class clinical and biomechanical assessment facility dedicated to providing precise 3D biomechanical testing for local and international elite athletes.

Dr. Kotsifaki’s research interests include biomechanical testing during return-to-sport phases, pre-season musculoskeletal screenings for elite athletes, and longitudinal assessments of athletes post-injury during rehabilitation. Her extensive publication record underscores her contributions to these fields, with her work setting benchmarks in ACL rehabilitation and biomechanical assessment practices globally. She is the lead author of the ‘Aspetar Clinical Practice Guideline on Rehabilitation After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction’, which has been translated into 17 languages.

Roula completed her BSc in Physiotherapy in Athens, Greece, and worked as a clinical physiotherapist for a decade before moving to Doha. In Qatar, she served as a sports physiotherapist for the Qatar Women’s National Team before joining Aspetar. She holds a MSc degree in Motion Analysis from the University of Dundee in Scotland and a PhD in Computer Modeling from KU Leuven in Belgium, where she focused on the biomechanical profiles of professional athletes recovering from ACL reconstruction and their readiness to return to sport.