Professor Hunter is a rheumatology clinician researcher whose main research focus has been clinical and translational research in osteoarthritis (OA). He is the Florance and Cope Chair of Rheumatology, Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney, and Staff Specialist at Royal North Shore Hospital. Since 2014, he has been ranked as the leading expert in the world on osteoarthritis on expertscape.com and ScholarGPS.

A native of New Zealand and an Australian citizen, he earned his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, and Master of Sports Medicine at the University of New South Wales. He completed a fellowship in Rheumatology at the Royal Australian College of Physicians and earned a Master of Medical Science (Clinical Epidemiology) from the University of Newcastle. He received his PhD in 2001, held an academic faculty appointment at Boston University amongst the foremost OA clinical researchers and returned to Australia in 2010.

His research is focused on a number of key elements in OA, including (but not limited to) the epidemiology of osteoarthritis, the application of imaging to better understand structure and function with application to both epidemiologic research and clinical trials, novel therapies in disease management and health service system delivery of chronic disease management. Dr Hunter has over 700 peer-reviewed publications in international journals and recently completed his second book on self-management strategies for the lay public.

He has received funding from NHMRC, ARC, NIH, Arthritis Foundation and the American College of Rheumatology. He was awarded the Young Investigator of the Year Award by the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) in 2001, the Clinical Investigator Award in 2019, and was a board member from 2007-2013.

He is the section editor for UpToDate Osteoarthritis, the co-Editor in Chief for Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, and host of the Joint Action podcast. He is an editorial board member for Arthritis and Rheumatology, Arthritis Care and Research, and Osteoarthritis and Cartilage and has been involved in reviewing grants for the NIH, ACR and Arthritis Foundation. He co-founded and chairs the annual OA Imaging Workshop, the FNIH OA Biomarkers Consortium and the Joint Effort Initiative.

He is a visiting professor at the University of Queensland, University of Melbourne, Harbin Medical University, Southern Medical University (Guangzhou), Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He is a member of the Australian College of Physicians, Australian Rheumatology Association, American College of Rheumatology, and International Osteoarthritis Research Society.