The Shoulder Research Group is an interdepartmental group consisting of collaborating academics from Imperial’s NHS Trust and London hospitals, the Mechanical Engineering Department and the Bioengineering Department who all share a strong and long-standing interest to advance the understanding of orthopaedic shoulder joints. Our mission is ultimately to improve the treatment of patients suffering from shoulder pain and dysfunction.
Our research interests cover all aspects of shoulder surgery, including shoulder joint replacements, instability, fracture and rotator cuff dysfunction. Our work integrates preclinical computational modelling, cadaveric laboratory testing, motion analyses, imaging and clinical studies including investigations of joint registry data.
History
Academic shoulder surgery has a long history in West London, starting at St Mary’s, then the Fulham Hospital (on the current Charing Cross site) and Imperial. Valentine Eliis was appointed at St Mary’s in 1932, surgeon and academic; co-author of Recent Advances in Orthopaedics, and many important papers. Arguably the most seminal “Battle Casualties treated by Penicillin” Lancet 1945 and “Diagnosis of Rotator Cuff injuries salina and local anaesthetic injections” JBJS 1952.
Lipmann Kessel graduated from St Mary’s in 1937, returning from a distinguished military career (author of “Surgeon at Arms”) to be Valentine Ellis’ registrar in 1945. Lipmann Kessel was appointed to the Fulham Hospital in 1952 and was Professor at the RNOH 1974-1980; organising the first ever International Congress of the shoulder in 1980. The legacy of Lipmann Kessel is recognised by the Kessel Price (BESS), Lecture (ICSES) and day (Imperial).
Roger Emery studied medicine at St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School, London, graduating in 1979. He was awarded a Wellcome Surgical Fellowship at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology and wrote his master's thesis on "Metabolic Studies on Normal and Osteoporotic Bone" in 1987. He was awarded the Zimmer Travelling Fellowship by the British Orthopaedic Association in 1989 and the first SECEC/ ASES Travelling Fellowship by the European Society for Surgery of the Shoulder and Elbow in 1993. Roger Emery was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon and honorary Senior Lecturer at the Central Middlesex Hospital and moved to St Mary's Hospital in 1993. His clinical interest is shoulder and elbow surgery and created an active clinical group at St Mary's Hospital. He has served in many roles including President of the British Elbow and Shoulder Society (BESS) International Editor of the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery and President of the European Society for Surgery of the Shoulder and Elbow (SECEC).
In parallel to the shoulder surgery academic developments, Imperial College had its own history of orthopaedic research starting with the Biomechanics unit under the joint leadership of knee surgeon Michael Freeman and engineer Alan Swanson from 1965 with many advances including the first condylar knee joint replacement, the forerunner to all total knee joint replacements. Collaborations were strengthened in 1988 when Imperial College merged with St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School and shoulder research started. Andrew Amis, then head of the biomechanics group had various shoulder research projects, including implants for shoulder instability.