Tina Horsted is one of Denmark's — and one of the world's — foremost physicians in the treatment of chronic pain with medical cannabis and cannabis-based medicine. With more than 30 years of clinical experience, she has dedicated over a decade specifically to the treatment of chronic pain, cancer pain, and palliative and terminal patients using cannabis-based formulations, alongside deep expertise in complex chronic pain conditions treated with conventional pain medicine.
Her career began with 10 years as a registered nurse and anaesthesia nurse, followed by 20 years as a physician, senior consultant, and specialist in anaesthesiology, intensive care medicine, and pain management. She holds a diploma in pain management from the Scandinavian Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (SSAI), and has worked at hospitals in the Copenhagen area as well as served as a senior consultant in Sweden and Norway.
Tina Horsted played a key role in helping implement Denmark's official medical cannabis pilot program in 2017/18, working alongside political health spokespersons. In 2021, she served on an expert panel advising the Danish Parliament's Health Committee, contributing to the program's extension through 2025. She is co-founder of the Clinical Cannabis Forum, a professional network for physicians, producers, and patient organizations, and co-founder and vice-chair of the Danish Society for Clinical Cannabis Medicine.
In 2018, she published Medicinsk Cannabis — Livskvalitet og smertelindring med cannabismedicin (Gyldendal), with a foreword by then Minister of Health Ellen Trane Nørby.
An internationally sought-after keynote speaker, Tina Horsted regularly presents at international conferences and collaborates with cannabis physicians worldwide on guidelines, education, and research. Her team at Horsted Institute has compiled data from over 6,500 patients treated with medical cannabis between 2016 and 2022, with findings published on an ongoing basis. The first major retrospective study, covering more than 1,200 patients, was published in the European Journal of Pain in late 2022.
Through Horsted Institute, Tina Horsted continues to train physicians and nurses in cannabis-based patient care, ensuring that every patient receives safe, evidence-based treatment.
