Katie de Luca is a chiropractor and an Associate Professor at CQ University, Brisbane in Australia. She graduated chiropractic school in 2008, was awarded her PhD from the University of Newcastle in 2016 and undertook her post-doctoral fellowship at Macquarie University. A/Prof de Luca has more than 70 peer-reviewed publications, where her research interests lie in the epidemiology and management of musculoskeletal conditions, particularly in the elderly. However, she works broadly across many areas, including healthy ageing, physical inactivity, sports medicine, rural health inequities and women’s health conditions.
Katie has >$5.5 million in research funding, including the industry-funded Back Complaints in the Elderly: Chiropractic – Australia study and the PACE RURAL project to improve care for complex musculoskeletal conditions in rural and remote Australia. Her contribution to research includes the 2021 Global Burden of Disease low back pain and musculoskeletal estimates, published in Lancet Rheumatology, and reaching 40million people globally. She is the current Chair of the World Federation of Chiropractic’s Disability and Rehabilitation Committee and represents the WFC on WHO World Rehabilitation Alliance, research workstream.
Katie is an avid sports person, living an outdoor lifestyle with her kids playing football, swimming, fishing and surfing. She often dodges kangaroos to get home in the afternoon and is very happy to be visiting her second home, Sweden.
