Geoff Askin

Professor Geoff Askin has been a Spine Orthopaedic Surgeon (Adult and Paediatric) in Brisbane since 1989 after completing internationally recognized Fellowships in Nottingham, Switzerland and Germany. He has a special interest in spine deformity in children of all ages and specializes in minimally invasive surgical techniques for the management of early onset scoliosis and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.  He pioneered the thoracoscopic anterior correction of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis surgical technique in Australia, now having the world’s largest single centre case series of thoracoscopic scoliosis correction (308 cases). 

He founded the Biomechanics and Spine Research Group (BSRG, formerly Paediatric Spine Research Group) in 2002, forming a strong collaboration between the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Science and Engineering Faculty and the Queensland Children’s hospital (Formerly Mater Children’s Hospital). Since this time, he has held the role of Clinical Director for the BSRG team. He has been pivotal in leading, managing and supporting the BSRG research direction, to address critical challenges in paediatric spinal deformity management and treatment. The BSRG is a multi-disciplinary research group, including engineers, physiotherapists, surgeons and scientists, and since the Group’s foundation, the team has published over 115 peer-reviewed journal articles, over 150 peer-reviewed conference abstracts/papers and 13 book chapters. 

Professor Askin also has a keen interest in the surgical management of early onset scoliosis and has developed an innovative growth friendly surgical technique for the management of this difficult and complex patient group (Semi-Constrained Growing Rods).  His work and research activities have contributed to improved treatments and most importantly in better targeting the timing of treatment to ensure the best outcomes for inherited neuromuscular disorders (eg. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Spinal Muscular Atrophy and Spinal Dysplasias).  Furthermore, his role as the Senior Spinal Surgeon at the only tertiary care children’s hospital in Queensland, means that research outcomes have a real translational pathway, from the bench-to-bedside, resulting in direct improvements in the clinical care of young spinal deformity patients

.Dr Askin has been supervising an annual Spine Fellowship since 1994 and to date has assisted in the training of 41 spine surgeons. He holds an Adjunct Professorship from the School of Medical, Mechanical and Process Engineering (Science and Engineering Faculty) at the Queensland University of Technology and an Associate Professorship from the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of Queensland.