Dr Karen Best

Dr Karen Best is a Principal Research Fellow and Registered Midwife who leads the Pregnancy and Newborn Health Research Program within the Women and Kids Theme at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). Her work sits at the intersection of clinical trials, perinatal nutrition, and implementation science, and she is recognised in the top 0.1% of omega-3 researchers globally (Expertscape).

Dr Best brings a combination of clinical experience as a midwife, leadership of large multicentre randomised controlled trials, and direct expertise translating trial evidence into routine antenatal care. She has secured over $13 million in competitive research funding ($8.5 million as Chief Investigator) from the NHMRC, MRFF, hospital foundations, and industry, and her research has informed multiple national and international clinical practice guidelines, including the 2021 Australian Pregnancy Care Guidelines and the World Health Organization.

Dr Best led the operational delivery of the ORIP Trial, the world’s largest randomised trial of omega-3 supplementation in pregnancy (n=5,544), published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Subsequent analyses identified that women with low omega-3 status are most likely to benefit from supplementation to reduce the risk of early preterm birth, providing the evidence base for translation to clinical practice and informing the 2021 Australian Pregnancy Care Guidelines and the 2022 ISSFAL Guidelines on Omega-3 and Preterm Birth Prevention.

Building on these findings, Dr Best led the Omega-3 Test-and-Treat Program, a world-first precision-nutrition initiative supported by a $1.66 million MRFF grant and delivered in partnership with SA Pathology. The program tests omega-3 status in early pregnancy and provides targeted supplementation guidance for women with low levels. Since 2021, more than 38,000 South Australian women have engaged with the program. In May 2026, following a Ministerial announcement, the program officially transitioned to permanent service delivery: from 1 June 2026, omega-3 testing is available to every pregnant woman in South Australia as a routine SA Pathology service, making South Australia the first jurisdiction in the world to embed omega-3 precision nutrition into standard antenatal care.

Dr Best’s work has been recognised through NHMRC’s 2024 Research Impact Case Study (Preterm Births and Omega-3), the 2025 NHMRC ‘10 of the Best’ publication, the 2025 Healthy Development Adelaide Women’s Excellence in Research Award, and the 2025 SAHMRI Translation and Impact Award.

Dr Best leads a broader program of perinatal trials with strong local and national collaboration, including the The PoppiE Trial, a national MRFF-funded study examining the optimal level of iodine supplementation in pregnancy to support infant neurodevelopment. She co-chairs a multicentre Data Safety Monitoring Board, and served as Director of SAHMRI’s Clinical Trials Platform from 2022 to 2024.

Dr Best supervises higher degree research candidates and welcomes enquiries from prospective PhD students interested in clinical trials, perinatal nutrition, or maternal and child health.

Research Interests

• Investigation of modifiable exposures (nutrition, environment) in the perinatal period to optimise childhood outcomes.
• Preventative health strategies to optimise the prenatal period and improve lifelong health outcomes
• Precision-nutrition approaches to reduce preterm birth and improve maternal and child outcomes
• Implementation and evaluation of evidence-based perinatal care
• Novel clinical trial methods, decentralised trials, e-recruitment/consent and digital retention strategies.
• Long-term follow-up of children whose mothers participated in perinatal trials