Dr. Michel began teaching at the MGH Institute when it first began in 1980. She has simultaneously worked part-time in Physical Therapy Services at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Since September of 2007, she has been the Research Physical Therapist for the MGH PT Department.

Dr. Michel retired in May 2011 and was accorded the status of Professor Emerita.

Her teaching responsibilities have been in the areas of clinical applications of exercise physiology, pain management, cardiopulmonary clinical care, pharmacology, and diagnostic screening for physical therapists.

She has been a research advisor for numerous student theses in the areas of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and chronic pain. Some of her own research has been in the area of aerobic conditioning in the chronic low back pain population, and in the benefits of lifestyle interventions in people with Type 2 diabetes on the prevention of heart disease.

She has been performing exercise tests in a population of HIV+ patients as a part of a study on HIV and cardiovascular risk. Her doctoral thesis was a comparison of learning outcomes between teaching diagnostic reasoning online and on-site. She has written three books, two of which are on pain, and the third on cardiopulmonary symptoms in physical therapy practice.

  • BA, Biology, Earlham College
  • Certificate of Physical Therapy, University of Pennsylvania
  • MS, Physical Therapy, Boston University
  • DPT, MGH Institute of  Health Professions
  • DSc, Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy, Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions

Research Interests

  • Exercise Responses to testing and training in HIV+ subjects.
  • Long term outcomes of lifestyle interventions in people with Type 2 DM or with risk factors for DM.
  • Supporting positive behavioral change in children who do not like to exercise using after-school group exercise programs.

Michel T.H.: Palliative Care Competencies for Physical Therapists Chapter 17 in Dying, Death and Bereavement edited by Corless I, Germino BB, and Pittman MA, Springer Publishing Co, NY, 2002 pp 329-343

Wittink H.; Michel T.H.Chronic Pain Management for Physical Therapists (2nd ed), Butterworth Heinemann, Boston, 2002

Michel T.H., Watts N.T., Jette D.U., Purtilo R., Watkins, M.P.: Comparison of Learning Outcomes: Online versus On Site, poster session, presented at National APTA Meeting, Chicago, July 2004

Michel T.H., Pierce S., Malek K.: Understanding Type 2 Diabetes: Prevention and Management--The Physical Therapy Perspective. PT Magazine 2008;16(9):36-46

Corless I.B., Michel T.H., Nicholas M., Jameson D., Purtilo R., Dirkes A.M.A.: Educating health professions students about the issues involved in communicating effectively: a novel approach" Journal of Nursing Education, 2009;48(7):367-373