Prof Helena Van Aswegen

Helena Van Aswegen is a South African physiotherapy academic and trauma care researcher recognised for her leadership in cardiopulmonary physiotherapy and acute trauma rehabilitation. She is closely associated with university-based physiotherapy training and interdisciplinary trauma research in South Africa, and serves as editor and contributor to the authoritative volume Cardiopulmonary Physiotherapy in Trauma: An Evidence-based Approach. Her work reflects sustained international collaboration, including comparative studies with Scandinavian institutions.

Her research centres on the acute management and rehabilitation of patients with thoracic trauma, spinal cord injury, burns, and major surgery. Recent multicentre studies comparing trauma care practices in South Africa and Sweden highlight differences in injury patterns while identifying shared physiotherapy principles, early mobilisation strategies, and approaches to preventing pulmonary complications. She also contributes to the validation of functional outcome measures in intensive care, strengthening evidence-based assessment in surgical and trauma populations.

Across clinical research and scholarly publishing, Van Aswegen advances evidence-informed physiotherapy within interdisciplinary trauma teams. Her scholarship emphasises pain management, quality of life after critical illness, and continuity of care from ICU to discharge. Through clinical studies, methodological work, and comprehensive academic texts, she has shaped best practice in trauma rehabilitation in both resource-limited and well-resourced settings.