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".
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
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.
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.
Balazs Lenkei
Miskolc, Hungary
President of the Hungarian Hand Surgery Society,
Associate Head of the Trauma and Hand Surgery Department in the BAZ County Teaching Hospital, Director of TritonLife Debrecen Private Hospital, AO Hungary National Faculty Member, Examiner in the FESSH Examination Committee, Examiner in the Hungarian National Hand Surgery training program, Examiner in the Hungarian National Traumatology training programI started working in 2003. Right now, I am the associate leader of a trauma and hand surgery center in Miskolc, Hungary. In everyday life this is the biggest part of my professional activity. I deal with managing the daily issues of the unit a lot and take part in the outpatient care, operative activity, and duty system as well. My interest in upper extremity injuries and disorders is accepted in our unit so I operate mainly these patients, but as a trauma surgeon sometimes I need to fix ankle or hip fractures as well. I enjoy participating in teaching of the younger colleagues, this way I got to be a national faculty member in the AO group. Since 2019. I am an examiner in the FESSH examination committee. The group of this committee consists of wonderful people. The meetings and examinations are very fruitful for me. Being the director of a private hospital is kind of new to me, but I enjoy it as it gives a lot of success experience.
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. 
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. 
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.
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.