Nadine Foster is a physiotherapist, Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, and previous National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator and NIHR Research Professor. She has moved in 2021 to the role of 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) where 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. Nadine has also commenced in 2023 as Academic Director of The University of Queensland’s Clinical Trials Unit.

Her research focuses on musculoskeletal pain, including low back pain and osteoarthritis, and in developing, testing and implementing treatments and models of care. She has led or collaborated on more than 31 randomised trials and 4 Individual Patient Data (IPD) meta-analyses, attracting over AUD$113 million in research funding from NIHR, Arthritis Research UK, NHMRC and MRFF. Her trials include treatments such as exercise, psychological treatments, medications, stratified models of care and different approaches to surgery. She is an NHMRC Investigator (leadership level 2) and is leveraging international networks for collaborative trials across countries.

Nadine was previously President of the Society for Back Pain Research in the UK, BritSpine conference organisation committee, member of the UK Spine Society’s Board, and member of the Steering Group for the International Forum for Back and Neck Pain Research. She has supervised 15 PhD students to completion (nearly all were clinicians) with 5 current PhD students and she has led or contributed to 285 publications, including the internationally recognised Lancet Series on Low Back Pain in 2018.