Joy Adamson

RCS Chair in Surgical Trials & Health Sciences, University of York

Professor Joy Adamson is RCS Chair of Surgical Trials and Health Research at one of the nice RCS Clinical Trial Centres at University of York. Joy is an experienced methodologist with a broad range of methodological expertise, encompassing trials; epidemiology; qualitative methods and mixed method research. She has been applying this skill set to a range of applied health research projects over a number of years. Her current role is to work with surgeons to generate high quality research evidence, with a focus on orthopaedic surgery. 

Nick Aresti

Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Barts Health NHS Trust

Nick is a Consultant at Barts Health working across the Royal London and Whipps Cross Hospitals, where he specialises in shoulder and elbow surgery. He is the Deputy Clinical Network Lead for Orthopaedics at Barts Health and is also a Clinical Lead. He has been on the Orthopaedic Committee for two years and was recently appointed to the Vice Chair position. Nick trained on the Percivall Pott rotation and spent a year as a fellow to the National Medical Director.

Irrum Afzal

Honorary lecturer, Imperial College, BOSTAA Committee, OREF Non-Executive Board Member, NOA Director's Award, SWLEOC London

Irrum graduated with a distinction from Imperial College London. Irrum is MICR, MRQA, and a Master of Public Health qualified researcher. Irrum has both research and management experience. She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma (PgDip) in Sustainability Studies and has successfully completed both the PRINCE2 Practitioner and Foundation exams.

Irrum holds multiple positions of responsibility, including being a professional member of the Research Quality Association (RQA) and a professional member of the Research Ethics Committee for the Health Research Authority (HRA). Irrum regularly attends HRA meetings, actively providing her expert opinion and guidance on research ethics and governance.

Irrum is an honorary lecturer at Imperial College London, an active member of the British Orthopaedic Sports Trauma & Arthroscopy Association (BOSTAA) Committee, BOSTAA Research Committee in line with the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA), and is the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity Lead for BOSTAA. Additionally, Irrum is a Non-Executive Board Member of the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF).

Irrum has published in various peer-reviewed journals and frequently presents at national and international meetings. Irrum most recently received the National Orthopaedic Alliance (NOA) Director’s Award.

Vipin Asopa

Consultant hip and knee surgeon, SWLEOC London

Mr. Vipin Asopa PhD FRCS (Tr & Orth) is a consultant hip and knee surgeon based at the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre. He has completed a PhD in Articular Cartilage Biology at the Kennedy Institute, before completing his higher orthopaedic surgical training in North West London and fellowship training at Sportsmed.SA, Adelaide and The Royal Berkshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He has received Orthopaedic Research UK funding to investigate the optimal conditions for harvesting stem-cells from adipose tissue. Additionally, Mr. Asopa is a Python coder and primary investigator for a study titled, ‘The use of Machine Learning in the early detection of failing total hip replacements.’. This is a project that is also being supported by ORUK.

Tim Briggs

Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, GIRFT Chair

Chair of GIRFT and NHS England National Director for Clinical Improvement and Elective Recovery

Chair and National Lead of the Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA) and Honorary Colonel of 202 (Midlands) Field Hospital RAMC

Tim is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon and was appointed National Director for Clinical Improvement and Elective Recovery for NHS England in November 2022. He is Chair of the GIRFT programme and leads the roll out of GIRFT methodology across all surgical and medical specialties.

Tim was appointed to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital as a consultant in 1992. His specialist interests are in orthopaedic oncology as well as surgery to the hip and knee. He was medical director at the RNOH for 15 years, ensuring a re-build, and was president of the British Orthopaedic Association in 2014.

He is also chair and national lead of the Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA) and Honorary Colonel of 202 (Midlands) Field Hospital RAMC.

He was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List for services to the surgical profession.

Scarlett McNally

Professor, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Deputy Director, Centre for Perioperative Care

Professor Scarlett McNally is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon in Eastbourne, UK (since 2002), Deputy Director of the Centre for Perioperative Care (Find FREE resources at www.cpoc.org.uk), Honorary Clinical Professor at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, President of the Medical Women’s Federation and previously an elected Council member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (2011-2021). She has an MA in Clinical Education and an MBA in health service management. BMJ columnist – all FREE at https://www.bmj.com/search/advanced/mcnally

Frequent speaker and regular writer. She was lead author for the Academy’s Exercise the miracle cure. She has published on careers, diversity, bullying, sustainability, perioperative care, myeloma, exercise and how to fix the NHS. Eg: preparation for surgery can reduce complications by 50%. Publications at www.scarlettmcnally.co.uk and Twitter @scarlettmcnally.

Andrea Sott

Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon

After graduating from medical school in Germany Miss Sott subsequently completed 10 years of basic and higher Surgical Orthopaedic Training in London. In 2004 Miss Sott joined Epsom & St Helier University Hospital NHS Trust/ London  as a full time Consultant Surgeon for Trauma & Orthopaedics and Foot & Ankle Surgery. She maintains a GMC portfolio as an active and enthusiastic Trainer for Surgeons and Allied Professionals. She is Senior Examiner for the JCIE, previous Surgical Tutor and current AAC panel member for the Royal College of Surgeons. She has published many papers in her field and outcomes of her Foot and Ankle work has been presented at BOA/ BOFAS as well as EFORT Meetings. She is host to a successful BOA FLP/ BOFAS post CCT fellowship since 2015. Over the past 7 years Miss Sott has developed her senior clinical leadership skills with formal and informal training/coaching. Previously Clinical Director for T&O she now is Medical Director for Planned Care (Surgery/Anaesthetics/Critical Care/Endoscopy as well as Surgical Director of the Elective Orthopaedic Centre Epsom. Miss Sott is married with 3 children and in any spare time she enjoys running, paddleboarding and playing the piano.

Paul Williams

Consultant Trauma & Orthopaedics, Associate Medical Director , Swansea

Paul qualified from the University of Wales College of Medicine in 1990. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1995, obtained the Intercollegiate examination in 1999, and became a substantive full-time consultant in March 2002 with interests in Paediatric and Foot and Ankle surgery.

He was the Clinical Director for Trauma, Orthopaedic & Spinal surgery at the Swansea Bay University Health Board for 4 years until August 2022; then continued in management as a Clinical Adviser to the Neath Port Talbot (HVLC) Elective surgical centre development that was completed in 2023. He is currently an Associate Medical Director in the Swansea Bay University Health Board.

Paul admits to being an IT delinquent but nevertheless is attempting to embrace the potential offered by AI.