EXETER KNEE CLINIC - Key Persons
Professor Toms specialises in surgery of the knee including sports injuries, arthroscopic surgery, complex primary total knee replacement and revision knee surgery as well as maintaining an on-going commitment in the field of trauma. He is the Clinical Lead for knee surgery at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Centre and co-ordinator of the Exeter Knee Reconstruction Unit (EKRU). He is also educational supervisor for the Exeter Knee Fellow, Extended Scope Physiotherapist and Surgical Care Practitioner. He runs the Exeter Knee Master Class Course and Exeter Hip and Knee Revision course. Other recent appointments are to the Chair of BASK Research Committee and BASK Executive, Euro Knee Society Research Committee, Orthopaedic Lead for National Institute of Health Research (South West), National Orthopaedic Data Evaluation Panel as British Association of Knee Surgeons representatives 2012, STAR Expert Knee Pain Committee 2013 and Beyond Compliance Committee.
Andrew Toms studied Medicine at Birmingham University Medical School and graduated in 1992, when he was awarded the Sir John Lewis prize for medicine. He started his Orthopaedic and Trauma training immediately at the Birmingham Accident Hospital and followed this through with a year's basic surgical training rotation under the Professor of Orthopaedics in Auckland, New Zealand.
Returning to the UK he achieved the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1996. Andrew was selected for higher surgical training in Orthopaedic Surgery on the Oswestry Orthopaedic training rotation and during this period he completed a higher research degree in Engineering from Cardiff University where his research has lead to many publications on Revision Joint Replacement. He was subsequently awarded a Smith & Nephew research award in 2003, British Association of Surgery of the Knee Educational Travel award in 2004, Cutner award from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2004, British Orthopaedic Association Fellowship award in 2004, Ethicon Foundation Award in 2004, Professor's Medal in March 2004 and the Charnley Trust Foundation Award in 2004.
After successfully completing the Royal Surgical College's diploma in Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery (FRCS Tr&Orth), Andrew was awarded the certificate of completion of Specialist Training in November of 2004 and was therefore privileged to be listed in the General Medical Council Specialist Register.
Following this Andrew was selected for the prestigious Adult Reconstruction Fellowship in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia, where he spent a year getting further training in complex and revision knee and hip replacement surgery.
Andrew now specialises in surgery of the knee including sports injuries, arthroscopic surgery, complex primary total knee replacement and revision knee surgery as well as maintaining an ongoing commitment in the field of trauma surgery. He is the co-ordinator of the Exeter Knee Reconstruction Unit (EKRU) and educational supervisor for the Exeter Knee Fellow, Extended Scope Physiotherapist and Surgical Care Practitioner. He is research lead for the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Centre and runs the Exeter Knee Master Class Course and Exeter Hip and Knee Revision Course in conjunction with Mr J Howell.
His published papers include extensive work on all aspects of knee surgery, trauma and reconstructive techniques. In 2005 he was appointed as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Centre and Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital, Exeter.
Since appointment at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Centre (PEOC) Professor Toms has helped form the Exeter Knee Reconstruction Unit and has been the knee unit co-ordinator. He was the orthopaedic department research lead from 2005-12, hospital transfusion committee member from 2005-12, PEOC Infection Control Consultant Lead from 2005-11, and ‘Enhanced Recovery Programme' Lead from 2010-12.
He has worked as a scientific reviewer for a number of orthopaedic journals. He was invited to join the European Knee Advisory Board, and was appointed as an Academic Fellow to the department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath. He has taken part in a number of international prospective studies. He was invited to join the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Knee Research Centre in 2010, the Global Revision Knee Development Committee for Stryker™ in 2010, and the Early Intervention Expert Group for Smith & Nephew™ in 2011. Professor Toms has been one of the lead surgeons in using patient-matched instrumentation and is chief investigator in a number of European-wide multi-centre studies evaluating this new technology.