Steven Hainsworth

Steven Hainsworth is a clinical podiatrist with over 35 years experience and also a research scientist from Melbourne, Australia. He became interested in dermatophytes in his undergraduate days, when in 1980, the Head of the Podiatry School at the Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences, appointed him to run the mycology laboratory. His fascination with dermatophytes has been maintained throughout his working career, with a special interest in onychomycosis and tinea pedis. He is currently doing a PhD concerning dermatophytes involved in onychomycosis, at RMIT University in Bundoora, a suburb of Melbourne.

Dr Hainsworth has published three papers to date. The first was an occupational and safety study for podiatrists on human nail dust. This was published in JAPMA in 2015, and confirmed the presence of many dermatophyte and non-dermatophyte moulds in human toenail dust samples generated by podiatry electric drills during routine treatments. The second paper, published by Mycopathologia, was a regional survey of dermatophytes found in communal podiatry nail dust on the Eastern Seaboard of Australia. This led to the discovery of an undescribed species of Arthroderma, which is partly the subject of the third paper recently accepted by Medical Mycology.

At present Dr Hainsworth is researching screening and susceptibility testing for resistance to terbinafine on a representative number of Australian dermatophyte strains involved in onychomycosis.