Honorary Fellowships

The BOA is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2020 Honorary Fellowship, which will be presented at BOA 2021 Congress.

David Beard

Having originally qualified as a physiotherapist David Beard returned from an overseas posting in Canada to complete higher degrees at Kings College London (MSc – Biomedical Science) and Oxford University (DPhil – Medicine). After a Senior Lecturer period at the University of Sydney, Australia, he has been Professor of Musculoskeletal and Surgical Science at the University of Oxford (Kellogg College) since 2011.

He has been at the forefront of surgical evaluation, particularly in orthopaedics, for several years and is currently the Rosetrees RCSEng Director of the Surgery and Interventional Trials Unit [SITU NDORMS]. He also maintains a small NHS clinical role for Swansea Bay UHB.

Having first published research on anterior cruciate ligament deficiency in 1991 he has now logged over 300 published articles, several of which are high level practice changing clinical trials in surgery, orthopaedics, and rehabilitation. He has also supervised over 30 higher degrees. With his special interest in the knee (clinical and research), David is a longstanding member and supporter of BASK (research committee).

He is Chief Investigator/Co-app in several ongoing and planned trials with contributions to methodology, placebo control designs (CSAW), outcome measurement, and most recently innovation/robotic surgery. He sits on many committees and is a core member of the RCSEng Working Group on Robotic Surgery (RADAR), the BOA linked MSK RAS working group, RCS Digital Device Science Group and TSC Chair of many NIHR HTA trials. Any spare time is devoted to volunteer Search and Rescue activities with the National Coastguard (and a little 5-aside football!).

Colin Howie

Colin graduated from Edinburgh in 1977 completing a post fellowship in orthopaedics in Edinburgh with John Chalmers. He became senior registrar on the Exeter/Truro rotation in 1986 working with Robin Ling.

Originally intending to be a general orthopod, in 1990 he joined the team in Inverness doing almost everything including cervical spine fractures and arthroscopy tutor for the shoulder and elbow! In 1995 he was asked to move back to Edinburgh to join the arthritis surgery practice of Willie Souter and Peter Abernethy. His lists included shoulders, elbows, hands, hips, and knees developing a specialist interest in young complex hips following the paediatric hip service of George Mitchell and Malcolm Macnicol, and complex revision surgery.

Unusually his research output accelerated throughout his career with over 120 peer reviewed publications and many book chapters. He has contributed to NICE guidance on rheumatoid arthritis and heavily criticised (correctly!) NICE guidance on DVT. He continues as a permanent vice chair on the NICE Interventional Procedures committee reflecting his belief in evidence rather than opinion-based medicine. He has been visiting Professor and eponymous guest lecturer around the world. He set up the Scottish Arthroplasty Project, the ‘Scottish NJR’, which continues to monitor arthroplasty real time. His ongoing research revolves around patient outcomes.

He was made an Honorary Professor at Edinburgh University in 2014. In the past he has been Chair of SCOT, Specialist advisor to the CMO, President of the Rheumatoid Arthritis and British Hip Societies and was BOA President in 2014.

Kristy Weber

Kristy Weber, MD is the Abramson Family Professor in Sarcoma Care Excellence in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. She is from St. Louis, Missouri and attended medical school at Johns Hopkins. Kristy completed her orthopaedic residency training at the University of Iowa and completed a two-year research/clinical fellowship in orthopaedic oncology at the Mayo Clinic. She joined the faculty at University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in 1998 and was later recruited to Johns Hopkins in 2003 as chief of the Division of Orthopaedic Oncology and Director of the Sarcoma Program. She received the Kappa Delta national orthopaedic research award in 2006 and was promoted to Professor in 2009.

Kristy has served on the Boards of Directors of many national orthopaedic and cancer organisations including the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), American Orthopaedic Association (AOA), Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS), and the Connective Tissue Oncology Society. As Chair of the AAOS Council on Research and Quality, she oversaw initiatives related to clinical practice guidelines, evidence-based medicine, appropriate use criteria, patient safety, biomedical engineering, biological implants and the development of orthopaedic clinician-scientists.

She has been President of the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society and the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society (RJOS), Secretary of the Orthopaedic Research Society and Critical Issues Chair on the AOA Executive Committee. Kristy recently served as the first woman president of the AAOS (2019) and currently serves as President of the International Orthopaedic Diversity Alliance (IODA).

Presidential Merit Award

The BOA is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2020 Presidential Merit Award, which will be presented at BOA 2021 Congress.

Julia Trusler

Julia Trusler has been awarded the Presidential Merit Award this year for outstanding contribution and service to the BOA and Trauma and Orthopaedics as a whole, particularly in recognition of her work over the past year. During the pandemic, she has worked diligently to support the BOA Executive in providing advice and guidance to members; often at short notice and applying excellent analytical and drafting skills to condense significant and complex material into easy to digest messages.

Julia has worked at the British Orthopaedic Association for the past nine years, and been involved in a wide range of policy issues and activities across the orthopaedic landscape. Through the COVID-19 pandemic she has represented the BOA at meetings of NHSEngland, ARMA (the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance) and with other relevant stakeholder bodies, and overseen the production of a wide variety of resources and guidance documents by the BOA for the membership as well as the public and patients. She has a degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Cambridge as well as a Masters in Medical Ethics and Law, and has spent her career in the health/biosciences non-profit sector.