Dr John Best is a Specialist Sports and Exercise Medicine Physician with the Orthosports Group in Sydney. After graduating from the University of Newcastle in 1984, he was awarded Intern of the Year at St George Hospital, Sydney. He completed postgraduate studies at London University and in Australia and was subsequently awarded a Fellowship with the Australasian College of Sports and Exercise Physicians in 1992. Within the college, he acts as a trainee Supervisor and an Examiner, and serves on its Professional Development and Registrar Support Committees. In 2018 he was awarded the Clinical Supervisor of the Year Award, nominated by the ACSEP registrar body.
John enjoys a number of areas in sports and exercise medicine. He has considerable experience working with elite athletes. He had almost 15 years involvement with the Australian Rugby Union, incorporating a decade serving as the Australian Team (Wallabies) team physician, which included the victorious 1999 Rugby World Cup. His other roles with Australian Rugby included Medical Director, Sports Science Consultant (High-Performance Unit), Tournament Medical Officer for Rugby World Cup 2003 and Australian representative on International Rugby Board’s Medical Advisory and Anti-doping Committees addressing player safety and well-being.
John and his family completed a working sabbatical in London which involved working with professional sports clubs. This included the English Premier League Football, Professional Rugby Union and Super-League teams. It also included medical care of the victorious Southern Hemisphere Rugby Team.
John has served on Football Australasia’s High Performance Committee and is currently on the National Rugby League’s (NRL) Medical Advisory Panel. He was Tournament Medical Officer for the 2020 NRL ‘Nines’. He also acts as a medical consultant for the Australian Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA).
John is the co-founder of ICFAR (an ‘Injury Clinic for Asylum Seekers and Refugees’) in Western Sydney where he volunteers regularly. Other clinical interests include exercise prescription and health promotion through education and lifestyle change and preventing burn-out. John holds a holistic view of health – looking at body, mind and spirit as essential parts of our being. John is a Conjoint Lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, where he teaches medical and exercise physiology students.
In 2000, John was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for Sports Medicine by the Prime Minister and Governor General of Australia. In 2012 he was nominated as a ‘community leader’ and completed a community awareness (CAPP) course with NSW Police.
From 2012-2015 John enjoyed having a ‘parallel career’ working part-time at his church as the ‘Men’s Pastor’. This involved mentoring, leadership training and teaching. John is married to Megan who is a Palliative Care Doctor, Medical Bioethicist and author. They love their growing family. John is eager to find out what makes people tick and seeks to use his professional and personal skills to help people live well. He is a popular public speaker on health and wellbeing. He considers himself a men’s health advocate and hopes to complete a men’s health book this year.
His hobbies include physical training, backgammon, French comedies and religious art.