Andrew Carr

Professor Andrew Carr ChM DSc FRCS FMedSci is a surgeon and clinical scientist. He was born in Bradford and studied medicine at Bristol University before training in Sheffield, Oxford, Seattle and Melbourne. He holds the Nuffield Professorship of Orthopaedics at Oxford University and is a fellow of Worcester College, Oxford.

His research over 40 years has had a significant influence on the management of patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery. Whilst working with John Goodfellow, he defined the use of the Oxford Knee as a partial knee replacement which has been implanted in over two million people worldwide. He pioneered the increased involvement of patients in assessing the effectiveness of orthopaedic surgery. The Oxford Scores he co-developed with Ray Fitzpatrick are now used globally to assess patient outcomes and direct national health policies for joint replacement operations. He has focussed on improving the interdisciplinary skills and infrastructure required for large scale surgical trials and has led and contributed to both UK and international multicentre trials. He has led the controversial use of placebo controls in surgical trials which has resulted in the decommissioning of ineffective operations. His work on chronic musculoskeletal pain has identified the importance of unresolved inflammation and, collaborating with Irene Tracey, established the importance of central pain sensitisation as a contributor to chronic musculoskeletal pain. He is one of the 25 most cited surgical researchers globally with over 250 publications, including over 40 in the Lancet, BMJ, Science Translational Medicine, Cell and Nature Biotechnology.  

He was head of the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences for 21 years during which time the department grew from 20 to over 450 research staff and DPhil students. He founded and directed the Botnar Institute of Musculoskeletal Sciences (2009-2021) and was Director of the NIHR Biomedical Research Unit (2008-2018). He was Divisional Director of the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre specialist NHS hospital (2011-2014) during its merger to form Oxford University Hospitals NHS foundation trust. He was instrumental in the move of the Kennedy Institute to Oxford in 2011 with a benefaction of over £75million from the Kennedy Trust for Rheumatology. 

He is currently Deputy Chair of the board of trustees of Bristol University, a Nuffield Medical trustee, a council member and trustee of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and an NIHR senior investigator. He has received numerous national and international awards including an honorary Doctorate from the University of Copenhagen and a fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.