Educated at St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School with a BSc, MBBS, Emeritus Professor David Wood became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1983. After fellowships at Florida State and Harvard Universities in Musculoskeletal Tumour Surgery (1989) and a short return to England he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Orthopaedic Surgery at UWA and full professor in 1993.
Emeritus Professor David Wood research interests in molecular biology, autologous cell transplantation and sarcoma genomics have complemented his clinical interests in tumour surgery and joint replacement surgery. He has performed over 25,000 surgical procedures, designed a successful total hip replacement, developed new techniques of autologous chondrocyte implantation and antibiotic loaded bulk bone allografts for limb salvage.Emeritus Professor David Wood has published more than 250 peer reviewed papers with over 6000 citations and an h score of 44.
He value his achievements in the provision clinical and educational services in low- and middle-income countries over 25 years culminating in the dissemination of our Musculoskeletal Tumour Surgery Program on the United Nations global surgery education platform and delivering face to face courses on 5 continents.
Most important experiences while at UWA
The completion of the human genome project heralded an avalanche of information providing potential answers to questions we previously only dreamed of being able to answer. Navigating this new environment as research funding dried up and governance regulations became more onerous often without discernible ethical value remains interesting. In short, Moore’s law versus Eroom’s law.
Where did you think you would end up, when you began your career?
As a teenager in a mining community in Yorkshire, thoughts of serving my hometown community were outweighed by an ambition to see the world.
When Dennis Burkitt presented me with the Hadden Pathology prize at St Thomas’s Medical School in 1976, I thought I might be a doctor in one of the many poor and developing countries. I visited New Guinea as an elective student mixing with Australian doctors. It was then in 1979 that I thought I might practise medicine in Australia.
What are some of your most significant achievements?
Establishing the first bone bank for segmental bone allografts in the UK (1989).
Establishing the Perth Bone and Tissue Bank to provide bulk allografts for limb salvage surgery. Director of the PBTB for over 20 years:
Providing a specialist multidisciplinary bone and soft tissue sarcoma/cancer service with regular weekly meetings 25 years ago, still I believe the only such state health department accredited service in Australia.
Starting the autologous chondrocyte implantation service in Western Australia.
25 years of multiple surgical aid and education visits to low- and middle-income countries, delivering 95% coverage with Gardasil vaccination in a cohort of young girls in West New Britain. 17,600 vaccinations, over 500 painful deaths prevented.
More recently our musculoskeletal Tumour Surgery course has been published on the United Nations Global Surgery Education open access platform with 374 registrations since April this year. Next year, in May is the 10th anniversary of our face-to-face surgery course to be delivered in Addis Ababa. So far we have educated more than1200 surgeons from 23 different countries.
Statistics: 25,000 operations 250 publications, 6000+ citations, h index 44
What has been the most interesting aspect of your career?
Helping people from so many different countries and cultures.
Where are you planning to go from here? Are there new interests you are looking to get involved in?
Our Surgery course has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese and soon also into French. With the help of friends and colleagues from Oxford University, the United Nations Global Surgery program, and the International Society of Limb Salvage we will make our course available as many surgeons as possible from developing countries to help prevent the unnecessary loss of life and limb.