Faculty

Philippe Bellemere
Nantes, France

Philippe Bellemère is an orthoepaedic and hand surgeon trained in Paris. He co-founded 25 years ago in Nantes the Institut de la main Nantes-Atlantique. This private hospital is a referent center for hand trauma and hand surgery and is accredited for education of fellow and resident.
Philippe Bellemère was the past-President (2017) of the French Society of Hand Surgery (SFCM-G.E.M) and the past-President (2008 to 2011) of the Federation of French Hand Trauma Centers (FESUM). He is member of the National Academy of Surgery. For the FESSH, he was past National representative and attended the Hand Trauma Committee.
His specific interests are osteoarthritis and RA, arthroplasties in hand, wrist and elbow, wrist arthroscopy, finger and thumb deformities and palsies.
He is frequently an invited speaker in international courses and hand surgery society meetings.
He is author of 55 papers published in peer-reviews (PubMed) and has written numerous book and monography chapters.
He was co-editor of the FESSH instructional course book 2020 "Arthroplasty in Hand Surgery".

Michel Boeckstyns
Copenhagen, Denmark

Michel Boeckstyns is an orthopaedic surgeon specialized in hand surgery, currently affiliated to Capio Private Hospital and Herlev-Gentofte University Hospital in Copenhagen. He graduated at the University of Copenhagen after studying at the medical schools s of Brussels and Copenhagen. He is editor at the Journal of Hand Surgery, European Volume and chairman elect of the Scandinavian Society for Surgery of the Hand. From 2005 to 2018 he was examinator at the European Board Hand Surgery Examination. He has 73 publications registered in Pub Med and 10 textbook chapters. In 1996 he was president of the biannual meeting of the Scandinavian Society for Surgery of the Hand and in 2018 president of the annual FESSH meeting in Copenhagen. He is frequently invited to speak at Danish as well as international meetings and courses. In 2015, he defended his doctorate thesis "Total wrist arthroplasty: outcomes, patient rated outcome measures and periprosthetic osteolysis".

Maurizio Calcagni
Zürich, Switzerland

Mr Calcagni is a specialist in Hand Surgery, FMH, and a specialist in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, FMH. He is presently Vice-Chairman Div. of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery, University Hospital Zurich, Secretary General of the FESSH (2017-2020) and next-President of the Swiss Society for Hand Surgery (2020-2022). He has 100 publications in indexed journals, 30 non indexed journals and 23 book chapters. He is teaching at University of Milan, University of Zurich, he is chairman of the Handflaps Course and Tendon Suture Course (Zurich) and is frequently invited speaker at many national and international Courses

Camilo Chaves
Paris - Nantes, France

Camilo Chaves is an orthopaedic surgeon specialized in hand surgery and a fellow of the European Board of Hand Surgery. He graduated from the University of Paris–Saclay and completed a microsurgical and hand surgery training at the University of Paris, as well as a Master of Science in Nanotechnology and Regenerative Medicine at the University College of London. Dr Chaves has acquired his expertise and experience from different FESSH centres with highly specialized mentors. His interests include microsurgery, osteoarthritis, reconstruction, outcome measurements, oncology, and tissue engineering. He places great importance on science communication, and he regularly publishes clinical studies and original research articles.

Recently, Dr Chaves was awarded the FESSH Travel Fellowship and SOFCOT (French Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology) Travel Fellowship. He strongly supports inter- and intradisciplinary interaction and engages in international collaboration between specialized centres.

Ilse Degreef
Leuven, Belgium

Ilse Degreef is an orthopedic surgeon specialized in hand surgery, affiliated to Leuven University Hospitals in Leuven where she is full time staff member since 2003, surgeon-in-chief and appointed full professor of orthopedics & hand surgery at Leuven University KUL, Belgium. She is board member and president elect of the Belgian Hand Group (presidency 2022-2024). She has well over 100 peer reviewed publications on hand surgery, authored many book chapters and is a frequently invited speaker on international hand surgery meetings. She is the coordinator of the Belgian Hand Surgery Certificate, which is a National Post-academic Interuniversity Training and examination on hand surgery. Since 2021, she had a national FWO Clinical Grant and is thus appointed 50% academic researcher at Leuven University, with a focus on Dupuytren disease, a translational research subject in which she graduated with PhD in 2009.

Mireia Esplugas
Barcelona, Spain

Mireia Esplugas MD is co-director of Institut Kaplan in Barcelona, Spain. She specialized in orthopaedic surgery in 1995. Mireia Esplugas received the European Board Hand Surgery Examination Diploma in 2005 and was awarded with the Kaplan Award for Excellence in Anatomy in 2015. She was the president of the Spanish Society Congress in 2019. She was co-director of the Spanish Hand Surgery Society Reviews (Revista Iberoamericana de Cirurgía de la Mano (RICMA)) from 2016 to 2019. She has been member of the International Wrist Investigation Workshop (IWIW) since 2018. Her main field of research is carpal biomechanics. She is an active member and international faculty of the International Wrist Arthroscopy Society (IWAS) and became part of the IWAS board in 2019 as coordinator of European IWAS courses. She is also an active member of the FESSH Social Media Committee since 2017 and contributes to the work of FESSH Relationship Committee since 2021.

Reinier Feitz
,

: Reinier received his training as a plastic and hand surgeon at Groningen University, Free University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University Medical Center, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam (NL), Royal North Shore, and Westmead Hospital Sydney Australia. He passed the European Handsurgery exam (FESSH) and the European Plastic Surgery exam (EBOPRAS). Studied at Harvard Managing Healthcare Delivery and in 2017: Singularity University, Executive Programme (CA, USA). Obtained a PhD degree at Radboud University in 2021, for studying open repair of the Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex.

He served as board secretary of the Dutch association of Plastic Surgeons from 2005-2012.

Co-founder of Xpert Clinics, a private hand surgery practice. He is privileged to treat many professional athletes and is recognized as a High-Performance Partner at TEAM NL. As a medical entrepreneur and hand surgeon, he is a frequently invited speaker at national and international meetings. He has published extensively in the field of handsurgery as co-founder of the Hand Wrist Study group. He is active as a medicolegal expert and arbiter at Scheidsgerecht Gezondheidszorg, board member at Equipe Zorgbedrijven and Incision BV.

His MTP (massive transformation purpose) is to change the incidental and ad hoc collection of patient data into a routine and democratized outcome monitoring of health data. His current goal is to apply predictive and individualized medicine to the field of hand surgery.

Mike Hayton
Wrightington, UK

Mike Hayton is an Orthopaedic Hand and Wrist Surgeon and been at The Wrightington Hospital, UK for over 20 years. He performs a wide variety of hand and wrist arthroplasty procedures and has a special interest in sports injuries of the hand and wrist.

Carlos Heras-Palou
Derby, UK

Carlos Heras-Palou qualified from the School of Medicine in Zaragoza (Spain) in 1988 and completed his training in Orthopaedic Surgery and Trauma in Leicester obtaining his FRCS (Tr & Orth) in the year 2000. He trained in Hand Surgery in Leicester, followed by fellowships in Derby and Oxford. In 2001 he was fortunate enough to enjoy the Pulvertaft Fellowship awarded by the BSSH, and spent 6 months at St James' Hospital in Leeds. He Joined the Pulvertaft Hand Centre in Derby in 2001 as a consultant with an interest in hand and wrist surgery.

Mr Heras-Palou runs a dedicated wrist clinic at the Royal Derby Hospital. Areas of particular interest include scaphoid fractures and non-unions, wrist pain, wrist instability and problems after distal radius fractures. He has served on the Council of FESSH as chair of the Training Committee and also on the Council of BSSH.

He had an interest in education and runs a weekly webinar on hand surgery, freely available to any clinician interested on the Pulvertaft videos channel of Youtube.

Daniel B. Herren
Zurich, Switzerland

As a board-certified orthopaedic and hand surgeon, he has been the head of the hand surgery department at the Schulthess Clinic in Zurich since 2009 and more recently, became its chief medical officer 2018.

After medical certification, he completed further education with postdoctoral studies focusing on the investigation of biocompatible materials at the ETH Zurich as well as a Master of Health Administration at the University of Berne.

Dr. med. Daniel B. Herren has authored more than 90 scientific publications, which focus primarily on quality management and joint replacement techniques of the hand.

From 2010 to 2014, he was a board member of the National Federation of Medical Doctors in Switzerland (FMH), and was responsible for the association's quality management. In addition, he acted as President of the Swiss Society for Surgery of the Hand between 2010 and 2013. Currently, he is the secretary general of the Federation of European Societies for Surgery of the Hand (FESSH) and in conjunction with this role.

With his long-standing experience and activities in the field of hand surgery and orthopaedics, Dr. med. Daniel B. Herren has a vast national and international professional network. Teaching and education is the major pillar to develop hand surgery in Europe. It makes therefore sense to invest in this regard for the future generation of hand surgeons.

Jonathan Hobby
Basingstoke, UK

Mr Jonathan Hobby is a consultant Hand & Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Hampshire Hospitals NHS FT. He is the honorary secretary of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand. He graduated from St. Thomas's Hospital in 1989 and did his postgraduate training on the St Bartholomew's surgical rotation and Cambridge Orthopaedic rotation. He completed an MD thesis on the clinical effectiveness of MRI of the wrist and was awarded a Hunterian Professorship by the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2001. He was awarded the Graham Stack travelling fellowship in 2009 and was an ASSH international travelling fellow in 2010. He has served on the BSSH council, chaired the BSSH research and audit committee, and was chair of the BSSH Instructional courses for series seven. His research interests include wrist imaging, hand outcome measures, small joint arthroplasty and the influence of psychological factors on hand surgery.

Alex Lluch
Barcelona, Spain

Dr. Àlex Lluch was born in Barcelona in 1970. Decided to dedicate to Hand Surgery since attending a tendon and nerve reconstruction surgery as a first year medical student. After his Residence period in Orthopaedic Surgery & Trauma in Vall d'Hebron University Hospital (Barcelona), trained in Hand & Wrist Surgery with his mentors Alberto Lluch and Marc Garcia-Elias in Institut Kaplan (Barcelona) combined with frequent formation visits around the world. Currently he is the Chief of the Hand. Wrist & Peripheral Nerve Unit in Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and co-director of Institut Kaplan. He has special interest in the painful wrist and carpal instabilities, reason why he has contributed to create the International Wrist Biomechanics Study Group. He is member of the Relationship Committee of FESSH.

Miryam Obdeijn
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Dr Obdeijn is a Plastic, Reconstructive and Handsurgeon, specialized in hand and wrist surgery. She is a consultant in the Amsterdam Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam. Her current subspecialty is surgery of the spastic upper limb. She is the director of the training program for Plastic Surgery in the Amsterdam UMC. She was a member of the board of the Dutch Society for Surgery of the Hand for 10 years, and for 2 years she was the President of the Dutch Society for Surgery of the Hand. Dr Obdeijn is a fellow of the FESSH, and member of the Dutch Society for Plastic Surgery, The French Society for Handsurgery and the International Wrist Arthroscopy Society. She is also secretary general of the Concillium Plastico Chirurgicum.

Ana Pinto
Oporto, Portugal

1996-2003 Residency in Lisbon in Plastic and reconstrutive surgery Fellowships at Klinikum rechts der Isar, Mayo Clinic, Jonhs Hopkins and Clinic Paris V in the Hand Departments 2006 worked in private pratice at Hospital Cuf Descobertas in the Orthopedic Unit-Hand Department and in several insurance companies in hand trauma Since 2018 lives in Oporto and works at Hospital Santa Maria Porto and in Gaia. Surgical activity: since 2003 almost only devoted to hand and wrist surgery 94 Congresses 46 Presentations in Nacional and Internacional congress Faculty in: Hand Trauma Courses, AO Seminars, European Wrist Arthroscopic Surgery, Microsurgey Courses President of the Portuguese Hand Society from 2009 to 2012 2 post graduations in Avaliation of Body Damage and in Health Managment

Ole Reigstad
Oslo, Norway

Ole Reigstad (1969) is working as a hand surgery consultant at Martina Hansens Hospital in Oslo, Norway. He is MD (1998), specialist in orthopedic surgery (2006), and defended his PhD "Wrist arthroplasty: bone fixation, clinical development and mid- to long term results" in 2013. He has the Norwegian Diploma in Hand surgery (2011) and is a fellow of the European Board of Hand Surgery (EBHS) from 2017. His research interest includes a variety of orthopaedic and hand surgery subjects, with a special interest in scaphoid non-union, wrist and hand arthrosis, small joint arthroplasties and biomaterials. He is tutoring medical student and specialist candidates in hand surgery and teaches at specialist courses in orthopedic and hand surgery in Norway and Sweden as well as on international courses. He has published more than 30 peer reviewed papers.

Dougie Russell
Swansea, UK

Mr Dougie Russell is an NHS consultant who also works at HMT Sancta Maria Hospital in Swansea. Qualifications: MB BCh, FRCS, FRCS (Tr&Orth).
Mr Dougie Russell’s specialist interest is in hand and wrist surgery and trauma, including extensive experience in wrist arthroscopy. He is a member of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) and the British Society for Surgery of the Hand (BSSH). He is regularly involved with organising, running and teaching on national and international courses for consultants and trainees in trauma and orthopaedic surgery. Mr Russell qualified from the University of Wales College of medicine in 1988. He completed his basic surgical training during a short service commission in the Army. His higher surgical training in trauma and orthopaedics was on the all Wales rotation which included a specialist fellowship in hand and wrist surgery at Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham. He started his consultant job at Morriston Hospital in 2002.

Stephan Schindele
Zurich, Switzerland

Dr. Stephan F. Schindele is a board-certified hand surgeon and orthopaedic surgeon and is working since 20 years at the Schulthess Klinik in Zürich, Switzerland. Since years in the position as vice head at the department of hand surgery.

His special interests are orthopaedic hand surgery and joint replacements on the hand. In addition, reconstructive procedures for rheumatic diseases and malunion after fractures of the forearm and hand.

Stephan F. Schindele is board member of the Swiss Society of Handsurgery (SGH) and responsible for continuing education. Board member of the German-speaking Society of Handsurgery (DAH) and representative of Switzerland . President and founding member of the Bone Implant Research Group (BIRG) since 2011.

Further more member of several other national and international societies like FESSH, Swissorthopedics, FMH-FMCH, AGA, ERASS, ASSH.

Reviewer of several peer-reviewed journals in the field of hand surgery. Author of various national and international presentations, publications in peer reviewed journals, several book chapters. Proud editor of the FESSH instructional course book 2020 "Arthroplasty in Hand Surgery".

Sumedh Talwalkar
Wrightington, UK

Sumedh qualified from the University of Bombay and from the KEM Hospital in Mumbai. He completed his Orthopaedic training in the Northwest of England, having worked as a Senior Fellow in Upper Limb Surgery at Wrightington Hospital prior to taking up his Consultant post in 2009.
Sumedh is currently the Divisional Medical Director of Specialist Services for the trust and was recently elected to the council of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand.
He manages the highly successful FRCS Hand Course, which is held three times a year. He has a strong interest in research and undertook a year out of training at the University of Manchester investigating the role of fibroblasts in the healing of intra-synovial tendon injuries. He has presented at many national and international meetings and has published more than 20 papers and contributed to textbooks. He continues to maintain strong links with the Universities of Manchester and Salford and is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Edge Hill University. Sumedh's main interest lies in upper limb joint arthroplasty, including replacements of the small joints of the hand, wrist and elbow. In addition to this he is involved in the management of upper limb trauma, at Wigan, where in addition to local referrals, he manages a tertiary referral service for complex injuries from other regions.
Speciality Areas:

• Hand and Wrist Surgery : Rheumatoid Hand,
• Joint Replacements, 1st CMC joint Arthroscopy,
• Wrist Arthroscopy, Tendon and Nerve Surgery, Dupuytrens, Ganglions, Carpal Tunnel, Fractures/Non Unions/Mal Unions
• Elbow Surgery: Elbow Arthroscopy, Elbow and Radial Head Replacements, Trauma, Tennis and Golfers Elbow
• Shoulder Surgery: Shoulder Trauma, Shoulder Arthroscopy, Shoulder Replacements.

Rasmus Thorkildsen
Oslo, Norway

Dr. Thorkildsen is an orthopaedic surgeon since 2008. Norwegian diploma in Hand Surgery in 2013 and the EBHS Diploma from 2017. He has been consultant hand surgeon at the Upper Extremity and Microsurgical Unit at the National Hospital in Norway ("Rikshospitalet") since 2010, and has been the head of the unit since 2016. He has defended his PhD in March 2020 where the topic was trapeziometacarpal osteoarthritis ("Total joint replacement or resection arthroplasty for trapeziometacarpal osteoarthritis")

Brigitte van der Heijden
's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands

Brigitte van der Heijden is plastic surgeon, specialized in Hand and Wrist Surgery and her field of interest is treatment of arthrosis and trauma. She is acting chairman of the FESSH Congress Committee, and she was the president of the Dutch Society for Surgery of the Hand (2018). She works in the Jeroen Bosch Hospital in 's-Hertogenbosch.

David Warwick
Southampton, UK

David Warwick is Consultant Hand Surgeon at University Hospital Southampton since 1998 as well as visiting Hand Surgeon to the States of Jersey and Bailiwick of Guernsey. He is involved daily in the clinical management of complex hand and wrist problems with a particular interest in the DRUJ, Dupuytren's, joint replacement and orthopaedic hand trauma.

His teaching, research, and administrative contributions were rewarded by the University of Southampton with an Honorary Professorship in 2013. His NHS contribution has been rewarded with a Bronze Clinical Excellence award.

He was awarded the Gold Medal in the European Diploma of Hand Surgery in 2004 and was awarded the Hunterian Professorship in 1998 for his work on Orthopaedic Thrombosis. In 2020 he was awarded a Doctorate for his work in Dupuytren's disease

Most recently he has been President of the BSSH (2020), President of the British Association of Hand Therapists (2017) Chair of the FESSH Training Committee and now sits on the Executive Committee of the IFSSH.

David has been Visiting Professor to the Australian Orthopaedic Association, South African Society for Surgery of the Hand, Polish Hand Society and Finnish Hand Society. He was the International Guest Lecturer to ASSH in 2021.

David has published over 80 papers in peer reviewed journals with an H index of 34. He is on the Editorial Board of the BJJ and served 2 terms on the Editorial Board of the JHS(E). He has written over 20 book chapters and is Editor of the Oxford Handbook of Hand Surgery (2009, 2018), the European Textbook of Dupuytren's Disease (2015) and Apley & Solomon's System of Orthopaedics and Trauma (2001, 2010, 2017, 2021). He is currently Principal Investigator on 4 studies and leads the Clinical Orthopaedic Research Group in Southampton.

www.handsurgery.co.uk