Andrew Carr

Andrew Carr is the Nuffield Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Oxford where he is Head of Department and Director of the Botnar Research Centre. 

His research has focussed on the development and evaluation of surgical implants and technologies. Whilst working with John Goodfellow he defined the use of the Oxford Knee as a partial knee replacement which has been implanted in over 2 million people worldwide. He has pioneered the importance of patients’ views in assessing the outcome of surgery and the Oxford Scores, which he coinvented, are now used globally to assess patient outcomes and direct health policy. He has improved the infrastructure for clinical trials of surgery in the UK and co-founded the Royal College of Surgeons of England Trial Unit in Oxford in 2012.  He has been chief investigator of multicentre randomised controlled trials that have improved the care of patients undergoing surgery including defining the indications for placebo, or sham, surgery controls. His current research is focussed on the development of novel surgical implants made from nanoscale materials that enhance host healing responses to improve patient outcomes. He is author of over 450 papers and review articles, including more than 20 in the Lancet and BMJ, which have been cited over 32,000 times. 

He has led the construction of the Botnar Research Centre complex, at the University of Oxford, which now houses over 250 multidisciplinary researchers with charitable endowments of over £30 million. He was Director of the NIHR Biomedical Research Unit in Oxford from 2008-2017 and is an NIHR senior investigator. He was instrumental in the relocation of the Kennedy Institute for Rheumatology to Oxford in 2013 with an investment of over £60 million from the Kennedy Trust. 

He is past President of the British Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Society and was divisional clinical director during the formation of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust in 2011. He has held senior leadership roles with Universities in the UK and internationally, the NHS, medical charities, research councils and industry. He was elected a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2009. His awards include the Gold Medal of the British Orthopaedic Association and the Steindler Award from the USA.  His research has received media interest in outlets including BBC Horizon, Der Spiegel, The New Statesman, The Times, The Guardian, the Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 and “The Doctors” Show on CBS in the USA.