Dr Paul Licina

Dr Paul Licina, M.B.,B.S. (Hons), F.R.A.C.S. (Orth), F.A.O.A., Adjunct Professor, QUT, is a spinal surgeon based at the Brisbane Private Hospital on Wickham Terrace, Brisbane. He qualified as an orthopaedic surgeon in Queensland and then undertook further spinal training under world-renowned spinal surgeon John Webb in Nottingham, England.

Although his primary interest is degenerative spinal conditions, in particular back pain, Dr Licina treats all conditions of the spine.

Despite his busy private practice, Dr Licina devotes considerable time to research and education. He helped establish the AO Spine Centre of Excellence in Brisbane and oversaw its incorporation into the QUT Orthopaedic and Trauma Research Group, and has been granted the title of Adjunct Professor by the QUT. More recently he has established the Brisbane Private Hospital Research Group.

Dr Licina has traveled extensively both nationally and internationally as faculty for various spine courses and conferences. He has published a number of papers, and was involved in ground-breaking research involving spinal cord injury, being part of the team that performed the world’s first transplant of specialised olfactory cells into the spinal cord of a paralysed patient in an attempt to develop a technique to promote spinal cord recovery. His current research interests involve computer-assisted image-guided surgery and less invasive spinal surgery including bone graft alternatives.

He is the founder of a new facility called BackSpace, a multidisciplinary, medically supervised back pain and post-surgery rehabilitation clinic, which recently opened at Brisbane Private Hospital.