Head of Spine Surgery and Scoliosis Centre Schoen Clinic Vogtareuth

Bronek Boszczyk was appointed as Consultant Spinal Surgeon at the Centre for Spinal Studies and Surgery of Nottingham University Hospitals in 2007 where he served as Head of Service from 2010 to 2015. In 2011 he was appointed Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at the Division of Orthopedic and Accident Surgery and Visiting Professor to Nottingham Trent University in 2015.

He has published over 50 original articles as primary or senior author in international journals. His academic credentials of Dissertation (Dr. med.) and Habilitation (PD) were both obtained at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany in 1997 and 2008, earning him the Venia Legendi in Neurosurgery.

He is a regularly invited national and international speaker. He has chaired and lectured at national and international events for AOSpine, the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies, the Spine Society of Europe as well as national societies.

Bronek completed his medical training in Germany with electives spent in South Africa and USA. He became involved in anatomical research of the spine in his first years of medical school. This led to a dedicated interest in the field of spinal disorders

His initial spine surgery training as a resident in Orthopedic surgery was in 1998. In 2003 he completed his Neurosurgical training and subsequently embarked on a period of specialist spine surgery training.

Professor David R. Farley, is a consultant in the Department of Surgery, at Mayo Clinic. He joined the staff of Mayo Clinic in 1994 and holds the academic rank of professor of surgery, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. Professor Farley earned his B.S. and M.D. at the University of Wisconsin and completed a residency in General Surgery at Mayo Clinic. He also completed one year of endocrinology research and added six months of surgical and educational training in Mannheim, Germany, as a Mayo Foundation Scholar.

Professor Farley’s clinical interests focus on general, endocrine, breast and minimally invasive surgery disciplines. His academic efforts lie with surgical education and simulation training in surgery, focusing on how to create better surgeons in less time. As director of the General Surgery residency program for 15 years, Professor Farley has helped train over 300 young surgeons and he is a member of the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine Hall of Fame for teaching.

He was the co-editor for both Operative Techniques in General Surgery and Contemporary Surgery. He has authored over 300 articles, abstracts and book chapters, co-wrote three books, and has given hundreds of international, national and regional presentations.

Certified by the American Board of Surgery (ABS) in 1995, Dr. Farley is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). He became a director of the American Board of Surgery in 2016.

Alan has extensive experience as a Chairman and Non-Executive Director of private and public companies. He is a specialist in building and selling technology businesses. Previously, Alan was a partner at Ernst & Young and is one of the founding partners of the EY Management Consulting practice in the UK. For the last fifteen years he has been managing a portfolio of non-executive appointments.

The Audit and Remuneration Committees are chaired by Alan.  He invites parties to attend as required.

Dr. Khalifa specializes in cornea external disease and refractive surgery. He is currently an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Emory University School of Medicine Section of Cornea, External Disease and Refractive Surgery. He also serves as chief of service of ophthalmology at Grady Memorial Hospital and in the cornea service at Emory Eye Center. Dr. Khalifa earned his medical degree at the Medical College of Georgia. He went to the University of California San Francisco’s Proctor Fellowship as a Heed Fellow, which he followed up with a fellowship in cornea and refractive surgery at the University of Utah’s Moran Eye Center. Dr. Khalifa is paid by Fundamental Surgery for his service on the medical panel and the opinions expressed by him in association with such service are his own and do not constitute or imply endorsement by Emory University or Emory Healthcare.

Allan was Managing Partner of Emergent Medical Partners Venture Fund, and has been founder, Chairman, CEO, or investor in over 80 medtech, biotech, and diagnostic startups.  He was a co-founder and Chairman of Nanostim, developer of a Leadless Cardiac pacemaker, which was acquired by St. Jude Medical in 2013, and co-founder and Chairman of Hyalex Surgical, Inc, developer of a novel artificial cartilage for total joint replacements.  He currently serves on the boards of Noctrix Health, Celero Systems, and Zeto, Inc.

In 2018, Allan co-founded Woodside Medical, an incubator helping commercialize U.S. medical technologies in China. In 2020, Allan joined the Medtech Convergence Fund as a Venture Partner.  MCF is focused on the shift from intervention to prevention, invasive to non-invasive and hospitals to the home, improving patient access while lowering the costs of managing disease.

Dr. Claudette Lajam is Chief Safety Officer and Adult Reconstructive Surgeon at NYU Langone Orthopedics. An Associate Professor of Orthopedics at NYU School of Medicine, she is an ISK Fellowship-trained Orthopedic Surgeon. She specializes in total hip replacement, total knee replacement, revision and complex revision total hip and knee replacement.  Dr. Lajam participates in the training of 72 Orthopedic Residents and 6 Arthroplasty Fellows each year. She is also an original host of “The Orthopedics Show” on SiriusXM Doctor Radio.

Dr. Lajam was trained at the world famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She has appeared on television, radio, and has been featured in multiple print and online publications.  She holds various leadership positions within the AAOS, is Past President of the Ruth Jackson Orthopedic Society, and is on the Central Board for Operation WALK through the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons.

Awards

Claudette Lajam, M.D. (OR ’04), will receive the Mayo Clinic Alumni Association Professional Achievement Award at the Biennial Meeting. This award recognizes exceptional contributions by alumni in clinical, research, educational or administrative fields. Dr. Lajam is the ninth recipient of the award and the first woman to be honored with it.

Derek Nicholson has over 30 years’ experience in operations, client service, tech and marketing. A degree educated programmer, Derek has led the development of businesses through the start of the dot com boom and has worked across numerous industry sectors building businesses processes, teams and delivery capabilities.

At Fundamental, Derek is responsible for the Operations team, covering client service, internal processes and systems, website and event support.

Colin Nunn has over 30 years’ experience in finance and investing. A degree educated finance director, Colin has led the development of businesses through the start of the dot com boom and has worked across numerous industry sectors building businesses processes, teams and delivery capabilities.

At Fundamental, Colin is responsible for the Finance team.

Paul O’Flynn has held several positions including ENT Tutor at The Royal College of Surgeons; Chair of the North London Cancer Network, Head & Neck Board; President Laryngology and Rhinology Royal Society of Medicine and Member of Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England

RCS responsibilities include Lead for surgical commissioning (30 guide documents published with NICE approval); Lead for QA and accreditation of surgical training centres both domestically and globally (Holland, Egypt, India, UAE, Oman and China); International business development; Chair of RCS Senior Clinical Fellowship scheme and Member of Research and Quality board.

He is an Intercollegiate FRCS Board member and an examiner for the FRCS in Otolaryngology.

He is Honorary Professor at the Deenanath Mangeskhar Hospital and Research Centre, Pune, India.

His main surgical interests are head and neck surgery, particularly laryngeal and parotid surgery and airway management.

He lectures widely, has published more than 60 papers and contributed book chapters.

He holds a National Bronze Clinical excellence award.

Paul qualified in medicine from University College London in 1982. He was appointed Consultant ENT/Head and Neck Surgeon at The Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in 1993 and transferred to London’s University College Hospital in 2005.

Philip Pucher has a specialist interest in oesophageal and gastric surgery.  He has trained in a number of countries and health systems, having been educated in Canada, Austria, and the UK.

He also holds an honorary clinical lectureship with Imperial College London, and has published over 80 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters in some of the highest impact surgical journals.  His specific areas of expertise includes virtual and augmented reality, training, and simulation.  He works regularly and sits on the committees of a number of international surgical societies in the USA, Europe, and UK.

Having developed and validated training and simulation programmes for academic contexts, he has brought this expertise to FundamentalVR to help develop innovative and engaging products which will shorten surgical learning curves and improve patient care.

Peter is a highly experienced leader in the field of educational technology for the medical and healthcare professions.  He has a wealth of expertise in simulation and educational design, working with a wide range of pre-eminent universities and NHS training hospitals, and as former Head of Medical Education for Touch Surgery.

Peter has worked with over 100 residency programmes and key opinion leaders, from a wide variety of surgical specialties drawn from all over the world, to develop surgical simulations.

As Chief Learning Officer Peter will be leading our educational strategy to build a world-leading surgical simulator, underpinned by sound educational principles and enhanced through our strategic research partnerships to support validation and accreditation.

After completing fellowships in Nottingham, London and New York, Omar was appointed as a Consultant Orthopedic Surgeon at Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals in 2012.  He was also appointed as an Associate Lecturer and Examiner at Newcastle University where he would continue with his passion for medical education.

He moved to St George’s Hospital in London as a consultant Surgeon with an interest in Complex Trauma including Pelvic and Acetabular Reconstruction as well as Hip and Knee replacement surgery.  In addition to undergraduate teaching at St George’s Medical School, Omar is a clinical supervisor for orthopedic registrars on the South West London rotation. He delivers a yearly cadaveric session on approaches to the hip and pelvis.  He runs a highly competitive Pelvic and Acetabular Reconstruction Fellowship which has proven to be very popular with national and international fellows.

He is a certified ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support) and a National and International Faculty member for AO (Association for the Study of Internal Fixation), Secretary to the OTS (The Orthopedic Trauma Society) and has been invited as Faculty on several national and international orthopedic conferences.

As a resident, Omar was a committee member of BOTA (British Orthopedic Trainees’ Association) and Chairman of BORG (Bristol Orthopedic Registrars Group). As a trainee representative, he was invited to write several articles on the effects of the European Working Time Directive on the reduction in training opportunities.

A key part of his role at Fundamental, Chris visits leading surgeons, educators, hospital groups, bodies and device manufacturers across the US to understand their educational needs and requirements for successful integration into our learning platform, and continue to develop our product to support those needs.

As one of the co-founders of Fundamental, in 2014 Chris and his co founder saw the opportunity to invest in Virtual Reality as the next tech platform after mobile to revolutionise the way we communicate, share and learn together. From his experience in the Healthcare sector, it was clear that VR presented a clear opportunity to make a real difference in way education could be delivered for Health care professionals.

Vicky Smalley has extensive experience working with AI and a passion for big data, working at companies including Sony, Climax, Kuato Studios and If You Can.

She started her career specializing in Artificial Intelligence for PC and Console titles and in 2011 took a change in direction, switching platform to mobile and focusing on the educational sector.

She is a strong technical lead with a history of managing teams who can deliver complex products to ambitious timescales while maintaining high production values. She is passionate about using cutting edge VR and haptic technology to deliver immersive training that will improve surgical outcomes.

Professor Dr. med. Richard Josef Stangl is the medical director of the Sana hospital in Rummelsberg (Bavaria, Germany). As a trained surgeon, his medical focus is directed towards Fracture Treatment, Shoulder Surgery, Endoprosthetic and Reconstructive Joint Surgery, Arthroscopic Surgery, Hand Surgery as well as Sports Surgery. This is complemented by Professor Stangl’s scientific emphasis on the topics of Shoulder Diseases and Injuries (instability, rotator cuff, AC joint, impingement), research on Hand, Hip and Elbow surgery, Cartilage regeneration and formation, Endoprosthetics along with integration of implants.

Professor Stangl maintains a close relationship to the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he completed his medical studies. As an appointed Professor on Trauma Surgery and Chief Doctor of the Department for Trauma, shoulder and reconstructive surgery, sports medicine and sports traumatology, he is closely linked and engaged in the training of medical students and residents.

He is a member in various associations and societies such as the German Society of Surgery (DGC), the German Society for Trauma Surgery (DGU), the Professional Association of German Surgeons (BDC), the Association of Chief Orthopaedic Surgeons, the German Association for Shoulder and Elbow Surgery (DVSE) and Member of the Board of the German-Turkish Medical Society e.V.

Awards

Under the supervision of Professor Stangl his former assistant David Merschin was able to win the Jochen Löhr award provided by the German Association for Shoulder and Elbow Surgery (DVSE) on the topic of ‘proximal humerus fracture in advanced age – quality of life, clinical results and institutionalization after primary inverse fracture prosthesis’ in 2015. Additionally, also under the supervision of Prof Stangl, Dr Anton Dorofeev was able to achieve the Sana Science Award 2019on the topic of ‘Fractures of the opposing cortex in closed-wedge tibial head repositioning osteotomy: new classification and treatment algorithm’.

Dr. Ivan Wong, MD, FRCS(C), Dip. Sports Medicine, MACM is an Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, School of Health and Human Performance, and the School of Physiotherapy at Dalhousie University. He co-directs the Joint Preservation, Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Fellowship program in Halifax, Canada. He received his Master’s in Academic Medicine from the University of Southern California, and he completed his fellowship with Dr. Stephen Snyder at the Southern California Orthopaedic Institute. He is also a certified fellow of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons (ABOS) and the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine (CASEM). He is the President of the Arthroscopy Association of Canada (AAC) and is the most recent Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA) traveling fellow.

He is a leader in innovative arthroscopic surgery and has over 60 peer-reviewed articles. He is on the editorial board with AJSM. His current research focuses upon the use of human dermal allograft for rotator cuff construction, the use of distal tibial allograft for anatomic glenoid reconstruction in patients with recurrent shoulder instability, and the use of orthobiologics for the treatment of cartilage defects.