The Board Welcomes Katy Carnachan as our newest registered Specialist.

Katy is a musculoskeletal physiotherapist from Auckland. She is passionate about helping people with spinal pain and conditions including complex spine surgery, ongoing pain and inflammatory arthropathies.

Since graduating from the University of Otago in 2007, Katy has worked in both the UK and New Zealand in a variety of hospital and private clinical settings. This grounding has enabled her to gain valuable experience to treat a wide range of conditions. She works closely with many specialists and surgeons and has worked in the orthopaedic spine and shoulder teams at Middlemore hospital completing first specialist assessments. She now works in private practice at Auckland Physiotherapy and also runs joint orthopaedic spine clinics.

Katy completed the McKenzie mechanical diagnosis and therapy certificate in 2009, then went on to complete a postgraduate diploma in musculoskeletal physiotherapy through AUT in 2012, graduating with distinction. In 2016 she completed her Masters of Health Science with first class honours. Her thesis was titled “Serious pathologies in the lumbar spine: prevalence and diagnostic accuracy of red flag questions”. Katy has recently published her research in the North American journal – The Spine Journal. She has presented her research findings at national and international conferences and is currently working on further publications. She plans to complete a PhD once her children are a little older. Katy has also been involved in the development of clinical pathways for spine care and regularly teaches general practitioners about managing back and neck pain.

Katy is very proud to be registered as a physiotherapy specialist, something she has been working towards for several years. She is looking forward to being able to work with other physios to offer expert conservative management advice and diagnostics to help bridge the gap between primary care services and referral to a surgeon. She hopes to work alongside physios, specialists and surgeons to streamline individual journeys to recovery. Katy plans to advocate for physiotherapists to be seen at the first point of contact for all musculoskeletal injuries and conditions and hopes to continue to expand the physiotherapy specialist scope to foster patient centered care.