He was made Honorary Fellow in recognition of his work setting up orthopaedic teaching, training and research centres in Malawi.
He said: “It is the greatest honour to be made an Honorary Fellow of the College. It’s particularly special to be here in Scotland which has such strong links with Malawi, where much of my work has been carried out.”
During Professor Lavy’s time in Malawi, he helped to set up two orthopaedic teaching hospital and research centres, The Beit CURE International Hospital (2002) in Blantyre and Beit CURE Zambia Hospital (2005) in Lusaka.
He helped set up national orthopaedic surgical and clinical officer training programmes in Malawi, and an international clubfoot treatment programme which now spans over 15 countries. He co-founded the regional College of Surgeons of East Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) in 1999, set up the college’s orthopaedic fellowship examination and served for many years on the council.
Since moving to Oxford, he has helped set up the international Global Clubfoot Initiative, which works to increase collaboration between organisations delivering clubfoot treatment.