Dr. Hans Van der Wall, PhD, FRACP

Dr Van der Wall is Professor of Medicine at Notre Dame University in Sydney. He trained at the Prince of Wales Adult and Children's Hospitals and has been a Nuclear Medicine specialist for nearly 30 years. On completion of his PhD at the University of NSW he took up the position of Director of Nuclear Medicine at Concord Hospital. He is now in full-time private practice.

Dr Van der Wall has supervised 9 PhD students and published over 150 scientific papers in the refereed literature. He has co-authored chapters in 8 textbooks of Nuclear Medicine and is a section Editor of the Musculoskeletal Section of the current reference text of Nuclear Medicine (Ell & Gambhir). Dr Van der Wall has been the invited speaker at over 70 international and local meetings including the Society of Nuclear Medicine annual meetings in the US and Europe, World Congress on Low Back Pain and the European Thoracic Society Meeting.

Main research interests are in gastroesophageal reflux testing and the diagnosis of lateralising lower back pain. He has developed and patented tests in both areas and is the only practice in the country offering these tests. The research has been validated against the accepted reference standards in both areas. He has a strong interest in musculoskeletal disease and has published widely in the area with both rheumatology and sports medicine physicians such as Prof S. Kannangara, Pro M. Cusi and Dr Jeni Saunders. He has strong research connections with Prof Greg Falk from Sydney University, an upper gastrointestinal surgeon.