Rate My Professor Rana Hinman

Professor Rana Hinman is a Professor in the Department of Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne's Melbourne School of Health Sciences. She serves as a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Research Fellow, Deputy Director, and Osteoarthritis Stream Co-leader at the Centre for Health, Exercise and Sports Medicine (CHESM), where she has been affiliated since 2003, previously as Associate Professor and Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow. Holding a Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours) and a PhD from the University of Melbourne (2003), her doctoral thesis featured her inaugural clinical trial on an intervention for knee osteoarthritis. Hinman commenced her professional journey as a clinical physiotherapist, driven by observations of evidence gaps in treatments, prompting her shift to research aimed at bolstering the evidence base for physiotherapy to enhance patient outcomes.

Her academic interests center on clinical trials assessing non-pharmacological and non-surgical strategies for osteoarthritis management, encompassing exercise therapy, rehabilitation programs, biomechanical interventions, telerehabilitation, supportive footwear, weight loss diets, Tai Chi, self-management education, and physical activity promotion for musculoskeletal conditions. Key publications include 'Telerehabilitation consultations with a physiotherapist for chronic knee pain' (The Lancet, 2024), establishing video consultations as non-inferior to in-person care; 'Efficacy of physiotherapy management of knee joint osteoarthritis: a randomised, double blind, placebo controlled trial' (Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 2005); 'Technology versus tradition: a non-inferiority trial comparing video to face-to-face consultations' (BMJ Open, 2020); and recent works such as 'Stable Supportive Footwear for Self-managing Hip Osteoarthritis Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial' (2026) and 'Online Unsupervised Tai Chi Intervention for Knee Pain and Function in People With Knee Osteoarthritis: The RETREAT Randomized Clinical Trial' (2026). Awards encompass the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (MDHS) Award for Excellence in Mentoring (2021), runner-up for PEAK trial leadership at the 2025 Acta Awards, PEDro prize for the best trial at TRANSFORM2019, and shared ACGR Award for Excellence in Graduate Research Supervision (2018). Her research has tangible impact, including a team-developed diet and exercise program implemented for Medibank members, alongside contributions to NHMRC grant reviews, mentorship, and fostering research integrity. With over 23,000 citations, Hinman has profoundly shaped evidence-based physiotherapy for osteoarthritis.