David Marsh

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2018 Conference
David Marsh

David Marsh gained his medical qualification from Cambridge University in 1975 and FRCS(Eng) in 1980 and a research-based higher degree (MD) – on the subject of measuring peripheral nerve function in the upper limb - from the University of Cambridge 1990.

As Senior Lecturer in Orthopaedics at the University of Manchester (1989 to 1997), he established his clinical subspecialty of limb reconstruction, being one of the early adopters of the Ilizarov technique.

From 1997 to 2005 he was Professor of Trauma and Orthopaedics at Queens University in Belfast. From 2005 to 2012 he was Professor of Clinical Orthopaedics at University College London, based at the RNOH in Stanmore. His research interests focused on the biology of fracture healing and distraction osteogenesis; tissue engineering of bone; treatment of osteoporosis and fragility fractures; clinical trials of fracture treatment; and measurement of outcome in fractures and limb reconstruction. He led the establishment of the UK National Hip Fracture Database and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the British Orthopaedic Association in recognition of this work.

He has now retired from clinical and university roles, but remains active in the field of fragility fractures. He was the foundation President of the Fragility Fracture Network of the Bone and Joint Decade and remains internationally active in that organisation. He was Visiting Professor in Orthogeriatrics at the Sapienza University of Rome.

His professional roles currently include:-

  • Board of Trustees, Arthritis Research UK
  • Chair, UK FLS Implementation Group
  • General Secretary of the Fragility Fracture Network

Previously he has served as:

  • President of British Orthopaedic Research Society
  • President of the International Society for Fracture Repair
  • Chairman of Research Committee, British Orthopaedic Association.
  • Lead author of Blue Book on the management of fragility fracture patients
  • Chairman, UK National Hip Fracture Database Executive Committee
  • Research and Development Director, RVH, Belfast
  • Research and Development Director, RNOH, Stanmore
  • Member of the Committee of Scientific Advisors, International Osteoporosis Foundation

In 1971 he married Cathie, a sociologist who became the mother of Jamie and Geoff; she died in 1993. In 1998 he married Norma, a veterinary surgeon in Bangor, with Órla and Caragh, her two girls. Dave and Norma are retired and now live in Umbria.