Key Skills
Excellent written and verbal communication: Gained through journal papers, podium talks, updates to funders, collaborators, patients, and industry partners.
Ability to develop close working relationships with KOLs including clinicians, regulators, and industry: Gained by actively building a Europe-wide collaboration network of over 100 spine, hip and knee surgeons, coupled with establishing relationships with R&D/regulatory leads at leading orthopaedic manufacturers.
Understanding of the NHS medical devices infrastructure: Gained through a decade of work onsite at the RNOH, building relationships with NHS procurement, theatre teams, R&D members, and related partners.
Working knowledge of UK, EU, and US medical devices regulatory requirements and knowledge of ISO 13485, ISO 14971, ISO 12891, ISO 14155 and ASTM F561: Gained through management of a worldwide post-market surveillance implant retrieval centre. Direct engagement and reporting to the MHRA, Beyond Compliance, EFORT and Industry members
Ability to design, setup and manage clinical studies: Gained by overseeing implant clinical studies, including ethical approval, setup, and delivery. Most recently I secured industry funding to run a prospective, longitudinal multi-centre PMCF to monitor blood metal ion levels in patients with various spine and lower-limb implants, which was adopted by the MHRA.
Understanding of medical device design: Gained through 15 years of research experience with close industry collaboration, examining new and retrieved orthopaedic implants.
Management of multi-disciplinary teams and financial budgets: Gained through extensive experience of managing post-doctoral researchers, engineers, and clinical researchers and their related resources, as well as supervising PhD, MSc, and BEng/BSc students.
Academic History
PhD, 2012, Queen Mary University of London. Thesis Title: Impact and Deformation of Press-Fit Metal Acetabular Components - An experimental and finite element simulation study co-funded by the EPSRC and DePuy Synthes.
MSc, 2008, Queen Mary University of London. Thesis investigated the Optimal Bone Screw Positioning for Securing Fixation Plates used for Distal Femoral Fractures.
BEng (Hons), 2007, Kings College London. Degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Professional Experience
Medical Devices Consultant - January 2019 to Present.
Write clinical-engineering reports for industry and expert witness reports for medico-legal cases. This includes both desktop reports and those involving independent analysis of new and failed medical implants.
Collaborate with clients to provide expert consultancy services in the field of medical devices, ensuring compliance with industry standards.
Utilise technical expertise to identify potential issues with implants and provide recommendations for improvement, contributing to the overall safety and efficacy of medical devices.
Implant Science Fellow of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) - March 2020 to Dec 2024.
Led implant science research at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH), managing multidisciplinary teams of academics, engineers, scientists, and clinicians.
Built strong links with KOLs, including surgeons, while overseeing the lifecycle of medical devices, focussing on post-market surveillance and integrating clinical and medical imaging data for the enhancement of orthopaedic implant performance.
Designed, established, and managed clinical trials, including a first-in-man implant study, with experience in obtaining study approvals through Research Ethics Committees. This includes authoring study protocols, patient information sheets, and consent forms.
Extensive experience collaborating with hospitals, clinicians, research coordinators, engineers, and regulatory bodies across Europe, I remain well-versed in the evolving requirements of the EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR) and UKCA standards. My work has also involved over a decade of close collaboration with R&D and Clinical-Scientific Affairs Leads from major orthopaedic manufacturers.
Managed financial budgets, allocation of resources and recruitment of team members
Engineering Director of the London Implant Retrieval Centre (LIRC) - August 2017 to Dec 2024.
Built this role alongside two Orthopaedic Surgeon Directors.
I was responsible for leading the engineering growth and expertise at the LIRC, with a focus on better understanding the mechanisms of failure of metal-on-metal hip replacement implants.
Oversaw the development and running of research and service contracts with two of the largest orthopaedic manufacturers (DePuy and Stryker).
Led grant application writing, work with international standards bodies (ASTM) to improve implant analysis methods and coordinate a team of engineers, technicians, and PhD students.
Honorary Associate Professor position within the Mechanical Engineering Department at University College London (UCL) - Dec 2021 to Dec 2024.
I held this post within the UCL Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Co-led of a clinical-engineering MSc teaching module.
Successfully supervised 5 PhD students and 12 MSc/BSc students to completion.
I have published 89 peer-reviewed journal papers with over 120 co-authors on research relating to the analysis of new and retrieved orthopaedic implants (post-market surveillance). This has led to more than 150 abstracts accepted for podium presentation at international conferences in Europe and the US.
My key research themes have included the analysis of metal-on-metal hip implants, dual-taper stem hips, knee implants and medical imaging, magnetically controlled growing spine rods and lower-limb nails, additive manufactured implants and the use of blood metal ion testing to monitor the function of implants.