Giovannie Jean-Louis

Dr Giovannie Jean-Louis is a Neuro-disability Physiotherapist and Entrepreneur, working tirelessly to improve research inclusivity and address disparities in patient outcomes for ethnic minority groups.

As Founder and CEO of medical research platform PROBr, Dr Jean-Louis is at the forefront of widening access to medical care and advice for patients from underrepresented groups. For Giovannie, her work with PROBr stems from a long-held commitment to helping people in need.

“I’ve always been someone who loves to help people, whether it’s friends, family, even strangers. That’s always been something that was a part of me.

“As I got older and started studying my bachelor’s degree, I knew I wanted to do something within healthcare.”

After completing her bachelor’s degree in the USA, Giovannie was on the hunt for where to study her MSc in Physiotherapy.

“I was looking at a lot of universities in Scotland, in England, just all around, even the US. But when I had the offer to visit Glasgow Caledonian, it was so welcoming.

“Seeing how nice the students were, and how close the University was to other areas of the city, I just thought, okay, yeah, this is definitely the school for me.

“The faculty within the MSc programme were very helpful. They were the type of people that helped to facilitate being a good clinician. That meant having your own clinical reasoning, being able to get everything from your toolbox and come up with a conclusion for a patient.

“Glasgow Caledonian has been a great school, very supportive. Even after I graduated, they’ve been there for me as an alum.”

Giovannie graduated with her master’s degree in 2021 and moved to London, where she continues to work as a Physiotherapist.

“My favourite thing about what I do is the flexibility. Being a Physio, you have different sectors that you can work in like MSK, Neuro, Geriatrics. There’s also no cap in terms of moving up in the healthcare field.

“But being a Physio, you get to help people become independent and improve people’s quality of life, and that’s something where I’m grateful that I’ve chosen this career. It’s also led to me being a founder of a startup that can help thousands more people at the same time.”

That startup is PROBr, a website, and soon-to-be mobile app, that makes it easy for individuals to participate in research studies and get paid for their time. PROBr focuses on matching researchers working on ethnically prevalent conditions with participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds.

Through PROBr, Giovannie hopes to improve understanding of how medical conditions impact different populations, particularly those groups most underserved by current research.

“PROBr is a way to bring people together, collaborate and improve health policies within minority groups and improve medical discoveries and treatments as well.

“We have the demo out for PROBr’s digital platform, and we are going live early this year with that platform, so people will be able to sign up. Students can sign up as student researchers, and that can help them with their papers, and the same goes for professionals as well.”

For Giovannie, working to improve the world is all about discipline, and the importance of taking action.

“Always make sure that your actions are stronger than your feelings. You might have a strong feeling that you want to do something, but your action has to be stronger. Go out and do it - whatever it is - even if it is hard. Just keep going and be consistent.”

Find out more about PROBr and sign up to studies and the app launch waitlist on the PRPBr website.