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David Metcalfe has been awarded both the prestigious Syme Medal and the AOUK&I Trauma Research Prize 2019 in recognition of his DPhil work in musculoskeletal science.

Horizontal portrait of David Metcalfe

Both awards recognised David's work undertaken as part of his NDORMS DPhil which he completed at the University of Oxford earlier this year. David delivered a number of studies that used routinely collected healthcare data to help clinicians provide better care for older adults with hip fractures. This work found widespread variation and even systematic inequalities in terms of the operations being offered to patients with broken hips. It also showed that the Hip Fracture Best Practice Tariff in England – which pays hospitals a supplement for providing high quality healthcare – improved quality of care and outcomes for these patients.

"These awards are important because they recognise the huge potential of data already collected by the NHS to improve patient care," said David.

The Syme Medal is awarded annually by The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh for doctoral research that is "likely to influence clinical practice". The AOUK&I Trauma Research Prize is open to all surgeons in training for papers focused on any aspect of musculoskeletal trauma. David's DPhil research was funded by an Oxford-UCB Prize Fellowship.