Nadine Foster

Keynote Speaker, Acupuncture and Dry Needling

Professor, University of Queensland/Metro North Hospital and Health System, QLD

Nadine Foster is a physiotherapist, NHMRC Investigator (Leadership Level 2), Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, and previous National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator and NIHR Research Professor. She is Professor and Director of the STARS Education and Research Alliance between the University of Queensland and Metro North Hospital and Health System (HHS) in Queensland, Australia (STARS: Surgical, Treatment and Rehabilitation Service). She leads the Research and Education portfolio within STARS, including a team of conjoint appointments and research fellows between the University and HHS, across the disciplines of physiotherapy, orthopaedics, nursing, speech therapy, psychology, occupational therapy, interdisciplinary education and research management.

Her research focuses on musculoskeletal pain, including low back pain and osteoarthritis, and she has a particular interest in developing, testing and implementing treatments and health services. She has led or collaborated on more than 28 randomised trials, and several Individual Patient Data (IPD) Meta-analyses, attracting over $90 million in funding from NIHR, Arthritis Research UK, NHMRC and MRFF. These include treatments such as exercise, acupuncture, psychological treatments, medication reviews, and surgery.

Nadine is Past President of the Society for Back Pain Research, and was previously a member of the Steering Group for the International Forum for Back and Neck Pain Research. She has supervised 15 PhD students to completion and led or contributed to 260 peer reviewed publications, including the recent internationally recognised Lancet Series on Low Back Pain