Rate My Professor Peta Tehan

Dr Peta Tehan serves as Honorary Senior Lecturer in Podiatry within the School of Medicine and Public Health, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle. She earned her PhD from the University of Newcastle in 2016, focusing on the podiatrists' role in vascular assessment of the lower limb and the validity of non-invasive vascular assessment techniques in diabetes, where she developed a novel vascular screening pathway for community-based patients. Additional qualifications include a Graduate Certificate in Wound Care from Monash University, a Bachelor of Health Science (Podiatry) from Queensland University of Technology, and a Graduate Certificate in the Practice of Tertiary Teaching from the University of Newcastle. Previously, she held the position of Senior Lecturer in the School of Health Sciences. As a registered podiatrist with over ten years of clinical experience, Tehan has worked in private practice in rural and regional areas and in public practice at the High Risk Foot Clinic, Hunter New England Health Podiatry & Footcare Department since 2008. She completed a six-month international post-doctoral fellowship at Auckland University of Technology, investigating retail footwear use in women with rheumatoid arthritis.

Tehan's research specializations encompass clinical podiatry, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, vascular assessment, wound management, early and accurate identification of arterial disease in people with diabetes, factors contributing to wound chronicity in diabetic foot ulceration including dietary intake, clinically detectable vascular disease in rheumatoid arthritis, and non-invasive vascular assessment in vulnerable populations. She has received prestigious awards such as Podiatrist of the Year at the Australian Allied Health Awards (2018), Faculty of Health and Medicine Community Engagement Award (2016), Best New Investigator at the New Zealand Podiatry Conference (2012), Best Oral Abstract at the Australian Diabetes Association Annual Meeting (2015), PhD International Exchange Scholarship (2015), and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) Merit List for Teaching and Learning Excellence (2018). Key publications include 'An Overview of Australian Podiatry Research: A Bibliometric Review' (Journal of Foot and Ankle Research, 2026), 'Pedal Acceleration Time: A Novel Technique with Much Still to Be Discovered' (European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, 2025), 'Healing beyond the surface: Empathy's role in chronic wound care a qualitative study' (Journal of Tissue Viability, 2025), and she edited the high-risk foot chapter in the latest edition of Therapeutic Guidelines on Wound Care. Tehan has secured research grants from the Hunter Medical Research Institute and the University of Newcastle, supervised honours and PhD students, and maintains international collaborations with researchers in New Zealand, the UK, and the US.