Some rather odd emails began to arrive in Jenny McConnell FACP’s inbox, asking whether she was planning to attend the upcoming International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine (ISAKOS) 2023 Congress in Boston, US. 

They made Jenny a little suspicious. 

Firstly, it was an event that physiotherapists didn’t usually attend. 

Secondly, she was preparing to travel to Iceland for a holiday not long after the congress was due to be held.

Yet the questions from colleagues and fellow members of the Patellofemoral Foundation persisted.

‘The ISAKOS congress isn’t one that a physio usually goes to because it’s arthroscopy and knee orthopaedic surgery. 

'So it was odd that I was being asked about it,’ Jenny says. 

‘But then in March I got an email saying “Well, we’ve actually unanimously decided that you’re going to get this lifetime achievement award and we’d love you to be at the meeting”. 

'I was overwhelmed and humbled by such an honour.’

Due to her looming holiday to Iceland, which had been postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jenny flew from her home in Sydney to Boston for the ISAKOS Congress in mid-June and back home again—all within the space of a week. 

Being at the congress to accept the prestigious award was a golden opportunity that Jenny didn’t want to miss.

‘I thought it was very important that I went and also important for physio to be represented,’ Jenny says. 

‘The award is a recognition that orthopaedic surgeons realise that physiotherapists make a worthy contribution in this area. 

'This is a very collaborative group and we’re all there for the benefit of the patient. That’s where our focus is.

'And that patient’s care is the best it possibly can be; we’re all there to help make sure the patient gets the best outcome.’

Presented with her award by Patellofemoral Foundation President Dr John Fulkerson at a lunch at the Harvard Club of Boston, held in conjunction with the ISAKOS congress, Jenny says she was deeply honoured to be recognised by the group. 

The Patellofemoral Foundation works to promote better management and understanding of patellofemoral pain, instability and arthritis by providing travelling fellowships to young othopaedic surgeons as well as promoting and advancing research in the field. 

Jenny, a Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist (as awarded by the Australian College of Physiotherapists in 2009), has been a member of the International Patellofemoral Study Group since 1999. 

The award recognises Jenny for her ‘distinguished career dedicated to understanding and treating patients with patellofemoral disorders’.

‘There’s a female orthopaedic surgeon who has previously got this award; she’s from Minneapolis. 

'I’m the second woman to be awarded but the first in the Southern Hemisphere and the first physio. 

'There are biomechanists and bioengineers involved in the group but there aren’t many physios. 

'You have to be invited to be in the group; you have to have been seeing patients and doing some research in the area and you have to present every two years at their congress in order to be a member. 

'Not everybody can randomly join the group.’

Jenny says she first came to the attention of a group of international orthopaedic surgeons when she was part of an extensor mechanism panel at an International Society of the Knee conference in Sydney in 1987. 

The panel was led by Jack Hughston—a revered orthopaedic surgeon from the US who is regarded as the grandfather of extensor mechanism surgery—and it consisted of an all-male group of orthopaedic surgeons.

Jenny was young, a new mother and dedicated to promoting the vital role of physiotherapy in knee pain. 

She began discussing her research on factors contributing to knee pain in adolescents and her small clinical trial on taping of the patella. 

She impressed the group and was subsequently invited to run some courses on taping in the US. 

As a result of her inclusion on the panel, Jenny was also the first physiotherapist asked to join the International Patellofemoral Study Group.

‘I started in a clinic on campus at Cumberland College. I thought, “I wonder what happens to the patient’s pain if I push the patella medially and get them to do some isometric through range quads contractions?” 

'I was also holding the patient’s patella as they were going up and down stairs and it took the knee pain away.

'And I thought, “Oh, that’s interesting. I wonder if I can do something to keep it there a bit more permanently for when they leave the clinic?”

‘I looked in the cupboard and found some old white athletic tape and the only reason it worked was that the tape was old and much stickier. 

'It was serendipitous that the tape was in the cupboard. 

'It was old and it stayed on the patient’s knee until they came back a week later. 

'From then I was taping the patella to minimise patients’ pain and they were improving,’ Jenny says. 

‘But I also started getting the failed taping patients, so that made me look more closely at why it failed and gave me more understanding of pain and unloading and different aspects to treatment.’

Jenny, who works in private practice in Mosman in Sydney, started conducting workshops in Australia and overseas in 1987. 

This led to the establishment of a more formal set-up with overseas instructors in 1991—the McConnell Institute—providing training for physiotherapists, athletic trainers and other healthcare practitioners to improve the management of chronic musculoskeletal problems. 

Jenny lectures and publishes widely on chronic musculoskeletal problems and regularly teaches APA training courses on topics such as rescuing the older knee and managing the problem shoulder. 

In 2006, Jenny received the prestigious FE Johnson Memorial Fellowship for outstanding achievement by an established researcher in the field of science and medicine in sport. 

In 2009, she was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to physiotherapy as a practitioner and researcher.

Jenny says the international perception of the role physiotherapy plays in the treatment of patellofemoral pain has improved enormously in recent times. 

As an example of Australia’s investment in research in the field of knee pain, Jenny points to Victorian physiotherapist and researcher Kay Crossley APAM MACP and her team, who are looking at some of the mechanisms of why people respond to treatment and at managing pain in a more research-oriented way.

‘I think Australian physiotherapy leads the way in research into musculoskeletal conditions, particularly patellofemoral, low back and neck pain. 

'We’re showing the world what physiotherapy can do, which is great,’ she says.