James Masters

• Clinical Research Fellow in Trauma and Orthopaedics, University of Oxford
• Royal College of Surgeons of England and Dunhill Medical Trust research fellow
• Associate Specialty Lead for Trials in Orthopaedic Surgery at Royal College of Surgeons of England

James Masters is Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery at the University of Oxford. He also holds an honorary appointment as Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals. He completed his DPhil at the University of Oxford, investigating surgical site infection after hip fracture surgery, and holds fellowships from the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He has trained across leading academic and clinical centres in the UK and South Africa.

James was awarded the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Dunhill Medical Trust Research Training Fellowship to support his doctoral studies and has subsequently received multiple competitive grants, including from NIHR, the Academy of Medical Sciences and AO Foundation. His work has been recognised with national prizes and international collaborations, including a Newton/RCUK PhD exchange fellowship with the University of Cape Town.

His research focused on improving outcomes after musculoskeletal trauma, with a particular interest in fragility fractures, global health and surgical infections. In the UK, he works with Data Scientists from the Big Data Institute to better understand complications of surgery from healthcare records. Abroad, he works in a global health research portfolio across Southern Africa, where he delivered collaborative studies on hip fracture epidemiology, care pathways, and health-related quality of life. He was the Chief Investigator of a UK multicentre randomised feasibility trial embedded in the WHiTE cohort, and worked on multiple Health Technology Assessment (HTA) trials and associated health economic evaluations.

James actively supervises doctoral students in both the UK and low- and middle-income countries, and is committed to building equitable research partnerships and strengthening the global evidence base for trauma care.