PhD Project - Advancing the Osteo-TAQ in French Osteopathic Care: From Practitioner Conceptions and Clinical Behaviour to Patient Experiences and Outcomes
Applications for this PhD project are now open. The deadline for applications is 6 April 2026.
Overview
This PhD offers an exciting opportunity to join an international research collaboration advancing an innovative tool in osteopathic and musculoskeletal research: the Osteopaths’ Therapeutic Approaches Questionnaire (Osteo-TAQ).
Building on published studies in Australia (Thomson et al. 2024a, 2024b), France (Thomson et al. 2025), and the UK, this project aims to extend the Osteo-TAQ into new territory by developing a patient-reported version, examining how osteopaths’ self-reported therapeutic approaches correspond to their actual clinical behaviours, and exploring how patient experiences and expectations align with these therapeutic approach profiles.
The project will be conducted in France, where the strong culture of PROMs (patient-reported outcome measures), established osteopathic education system, and large practitioner workforce create an ideal environment for high-quality, impactful research.
Project Contact:
Dr Oliver Thomson
Email: oliver.thomson@hsu.ac.uk
Details
Background
The Osteo-TAQ is a validated measure capturing osteopaths’ conceptions of practice, therapeutic style, and decision-making. While it provides rich insight into how osteopaths understand and describe their approach to care, several essential gaps remain to understand an in situ practice for a better evidence based practice:
- How do patients perceive osteopaths’ therapeutic approaches?
- How well do osteopaths’ self-reported approaches reflect their actual behaviours in clinical encounters?
- How do patient expectations, experiences, and outcomes relate to these therapeutic profiles?
France offers unique advantages for addressing these questions, including excellent PROMs uptake, strong practitioner networks (30 122 osteopaths, 2025 Osteopathes-pro data), and established research partnerships. This enables an ambitious, multi-method PhD capable of generating international impact.
Aims
- To examine whether osteopaths’ therapeutic conceptions, as measured by the Osteopaths’ Therapeutic Approaches Questionnaire (Osteo-TAQ), are associated with differences in patient-reported clinical outcomes and experiences of care.
- Examine concordance between self-reported and observed behaviour, comparing Osteo-TAQ scores with coded behaviours from video-recorded French osteopathic consultations.
- Explore alignment between Osteo-TAQ profiles, Patient-TAQ scores, and patient experience, including expectations, satisfaction, therapeutic alliance, and PROMs-based outcomes.
Funding 
HSU is offering up to three fee waivers for UK home applicants starting in October 2026. All eligible UK home applicants will automatically be considered for fee waiver support, which is awarded competitively based on the excellence of the candidate.
International applicants are unfortunately not eligible for fee waivers.
All applicants are expected to have financial plans in place to cover their studies and should not rely on a fee waiver.
Self-funded students are also welcome to apply for this project. Self-funded students can be UK home students or international students.
Availability
Available to both UK and International students
Potential Supervisors
Dr Oliver Thomson
Dr Loic Treffel
Dr Brett Vaughan
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