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Professor Catherine Hill is a clinical rheumatologist and epidemiologist with research expertise in osteoarthritis, randomised clinical trials, vasculitis and population epidemiology.


As Chief Investigator of the North West Adelaide Health Study (NWAHS), Prof Hill was instrumental in adding the musculoskeletal data collection to this study in 2004. Work from this study has been published as part of the Global Burden of Disease study published in the Lancet (December 2012), which identified musculoskeletal diseases one of the three most important diseases in terms of global disease burden.


Prof Hill previously led a multicentre NHMRC funded project grant to study the effects of fish oil supplementation on symptoms and structural progression over two years in knee osteoarthritis in a multicentre RCT and subsequent collaborations have resulted in two current NHMRC-funded multicentre Osteoarthritis trials into the role of statins and zolendronic acid in knee Osteoarthritis. Prof Hill’s most recent research interest is in Giant Cell Arteritis, the most common vasculitis in the elderly that can lead to blindness and stroke. She established the South Australian Giant Cell Arteritis Registry in 2009 which has resulted in further knowledge about this condition in Australia for the first time and has resulted in both national and international collaborations. She is involved in OMERACT (Outcome Measures in Rheumatology) which is an independent initiative of international health professionals interested in outcome measures in rheumatology. At this year’s meeting, she co-chaired a SIG on remission in RA and will be involved at the next OMERACT in the areas of PMR and corticosteroid adverse events.


Prof Hill previously led a multi-centre NHMRC funded project grant to study the effects of fish oil supplementation on symptoms and structural progression over two years in knee osteoarthritis in a multi-centre RCT and subsequent collaborations have resulted in two current NHMRC-funded multi-centre Osteoarthritis trials into the role of statins and zolendronic acid in knee Osteoarthritis.

Prof Hill’s most recent research interest is in Giant Cell Arteritis, the most common vasculitis in the elderly that can lead to blindness and stroke. In 2009 she established the South Australian Giant Cell Arteritis Registry which has resulted in further knowledge about this condition in Australia for the first time and has resulted in both national and international collaborations.

Catherine is also involved in OMERACT (Outcome Measures in Rheumatology) which is an independent initiative of international health professionals interested in outcome measures in rheumatology. At the 2015 meeting, she co-chaired a SIG on remission in RA and will be involved at the next OMERACT in the areas of PMR and corticosteroid adverse events.

Catherine was one of 6 finalists in The Hospital Research Foundations 50th Anniversary Awards in 2015.

Catherine was interviewed about “Fish oil and knee osteoarthritis” by Dr Norman Swan on ABC Radio National’s Health Report in September 2015.