Faculty

Jonathan Hobby
Basingstoke, UK

Course Chair

Mr Jonathan Hobby is a consultant Hand & Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Hampshire Hospitals NHS FT. He is the honorary secretary of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand. He graduated from St. Thomas's Hospital in 1989 and did his postgraduate training on the St Bartholomew's surgical rotation and Cambridge Orthopaedic rotation. He completed an MD thesis on the clinical effectiveness of MRI of the wrist and was awarded a Hunterian Professorship by the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2001. He was awarded the Graham Stack travelling fellowship in 2009 and was an ASSH international travelling fellow in 2010. He has served on the BSSH council, chaired the BSSH research and audit committee, and was chair of the BSSH Instructional courses for series seven. His research interests include wrist imaging, hand outcome measures, small joint arthroplasty and the influence of psychological factors on hand surgery.

Balazs Lenkei
Miskolc, Hungary

Course Co-Chair

President of the Hungarian Hand Surgery Society, Associate Head of the Trauma and Hand Surgery Department in the BAZ County Teaching Hospital, Director of TritonLife Debrecen Private Hospital, AO Hungary National Faculty Member, Examiner in the FESSH Examination Committee, Examiner in the Hungarian National Hand Surgery training program, Examiner in the Hungarian National Traumatology training program.
I started working in 2003. Right now, I am the associate leader of a trauma and hand surgery center in Miskolc, Hungary. In everyday life this is the biggest part of my professional activity. I deal with managing the daily issues of the unit a lot and take part in the outpatient care, operative activity, and duty system as well. My interest in upper extremity injuries and disorders is accepted in our unit so I operate mainly these patients, but as a trauma surgeon sometimes I need to fix ankle or hip fractures as well. I enjoy participating in teaching of the younger colleagues, this way I got to be a national faculty member in the AO group. Since 2019. I am an examiner in the FESSH examination committee. The group of this committee consists of wonderful people. The meetings and examinations are very fruitful for me. Being the director of a private hospital is kind of new to me, but I enjoy it as it gives a lot of success experience.

Duncan Avis
Basingstoke, UK

I graduated with Honours from the University of Bristol Medical School in 2004 having first completed a degree in Archaeology.

My general surgical training, including academic teaching and research roles, was undertaken in Bristol, the South West and South Wales.

I subsequently moved to the Wessex region for my specialist orthopaedic training, during which time I completed an MSc in Trauma Surgery. Following completion of this, and award of the FRCS Trauma & Orthopaedics examination, I spent a year on the prestigious British Society for Surgery of The Hand (BSSH) Fellowship at the Queen Elizabeth and Royal Orthopaedic Hospitals in Birmingham. This allowed me to work and study all aspects of hand surgery in an internationally renowned centre. I am one of a minority of Hand Surgeons who have been awarded the British Diploma in Hand surgery and as such I am knowledgeable of the most up to date evidence and surgical techniques on which I base my decision making.

I am interested in all aspects of hand and upper limb surgery, with a particular interest in wrist surgery and trauma.

I was appointed as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke in July 2017 where I practice as a hand and upper limb surgeon.

I am a member of the British Orthopaedic Association and an Associate Member of the BSSH.

Inga Besmens
Zurich, Switzerland

Inga Besmens is a fellow of both the European Board of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery as well as the European Board of Hand Surgery.
She has a Master's Degree in Reconstructive Microsurgery and is head of hand surgery in the department of plastic surgery and hand surgery at the university hospital Zurich. Her clinical and research interest focus on reconstructive hand surgery, including peripheral nerve surgery as well as outcome research.
In 2017 she co-founded YEHS- Young European Handsurgeons, the young group of the FESSH and soon after became the groups first elected president until 2020. She has been active in organizing conferences and educational course on a national as well as international level.

Nicolas Bigorre
Angers, France

Nicolas Bigorre is a consultant at the Hand Trauma Center in Angers, where he also resided in orthopaedics before specialising in hand surgery from 2012.
In addition to his engagement in the training of hand surgery residents at his home university, he has held the position of co-director of the microsurgery diploma in Angers since 2019. On a national level, he was elected Secretary General of the French College of Hand Surgery in 2022. In this role, he works to improve the teaching of this specialty to align standards with those of the EBSH, from which he graduated in 2015. He has also been a consultant member of the Société Française de Chirurgie de la Main since 2022.
His research focuses mainly on traumatology of the hand, trapeziometacarpal join osteoarthritis and neurological canal syndromes and amyloidosis.

Dan Brown
Liverpool, UK

Mr Dan Brown is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Liverpool University Hospitals, where he is the head of the hand and wrist unit and associate director of research and innovation. He is an Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at The University of Liverpool. He has a clinical and research interest in the management of distal radius fractures and their complications and the use of total wrist arthroplasty.

He was educated at The University of Manchester where he gained his primary medical qualification in 1992. He holds a master’s degree in clinical education.

He is a fellow of The Royal College of Surgeons of England, a member of the British Orthopaedic Association, and a recent council member of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand.

Ilse Degreef
Leuven, Belgium

Ilse Degreef is an orthopedic surgeon specialized in hand surgery, affiliated to Leuven University Hospitals in Leuven where she is full time staff member since 2003, surgeon-in-chief and appointed full professor of orthopedics & hand surgery at Leuven University KUL, Belgium. She is board member and president elect of the Belgian Hand Group (presidency 2022-2024). She has well over 100 peer reviewed publications on hand surgery, authored many book chapters and is a frequently invited speaker on international hand surgery meetings. She is the coordinator of the Belgian Hand Surgery Certificate, which is a National Post-academic Interuniversity Training and examination on hand surgery. Since 2021, she had a national FWO Clinical Grant and is thus appointed 50% academic researcher at Leuven University, with a focus on Dupuytren disease, a translational research subject in which she graduated with PhD in 2009.

Camillo Fulchignoni
Rome, Italy

Camillo Fulchignoni is a consultant in the Hand Surgery Department at Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli, IRCSS in Rome. He has an Orthopedic training, but spent most of his training in the Hand Department of this hospital. During his training he also spent 6 months as a fellow in Paris at Institut de la Main, and spent his last year visiting Dr Battiston in Torino and Dr Felici in Rome as winner of the Italian Society for Hand Surgery (SICM) fellowship program, specializing in Microsurgery and Orthoplastic Surgery. Moreover, he is actually a PhD student in Oncological Sciences. He is actually YEHS (Young European Hand Surgeons) President and past Secretary, co-chair of FESSH Education Committee, and he is EJD (European Junior Doctors) representative at UEMS (European Union of Medical Specialists) for Hand Surgery.

Daniel B. Herren
Zurich, Switzerland

As a board-certified orthopaedic and hand surgeon, he has been the head of the hand surgery department at the Schulthess Clinic in Zurich since 2009 and more recently, became its chief medical officer 2018.

After medical certification, he completed further education with postdoctoral studies focusing on the investigation of biocompatible materials at the ETH Zurich as well as a Master of Health Administration at the University of Berne.

Dr. med. Daniel B. Herren has authored more than 90 scientific publications, which focus primarily on quality management and joint replacement techniques of the hand.

From 2010 to 2014, he was a board member of the National Federation of Medical Doctors in Switzerland (FMH), and was responsible for the association's quality management. In addition, he acted as President of the Swiss Society for Surgery of the Hand between 2010 and 2013 and secretary general of the Federation of European Societies for Surgery of the Hand (FESSH) between 2020 and 2023.

With his long-standing experience and activities in the field of hand surgery and orthopaedics, Dr. med. Daniel B. Herren has a vast national and international professional network. Teaching and education is the major pillar to develop hand surgery in Europe. It makes therefore sense to invest in this regard for the future generation of hand surgeons.

Alex Lluch
Barcelona, Spain

Dr. Alex Lluch is a hand surgeon from Barcelona, Spain. He is the co-director of Institut Kaplan and head of the Hand & Wrist Unit in Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in his hometown. Fascinated by hand surgery since his years of Medical School, he still has the need for learning and sharing knowledge with frequent visits around the world. He has special interest in the treatment of arthrosis and carpal instabilities, reason why he has contributed to create the Barcelona Wrist Biomechanics Study Group.
Àlex joined the Relation Committee of FESSH in 2017, and continued serving as Elected Treasurer in 2020. He is now in his second term as Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee.

Zaf Naqui
Manchester, UK

Zafar Naqui British Diploma Hand Surgery, European Board Hand Diploma, MSc (Hand Surgery)
Chair of the FESSH Communication Committee
Zaf Naqui is the Group Clinical Director of Trauma, Orthopaedic and Plastic Surgery at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust in Manchester, UK. He heads up the Orthoplastic Hand Unit at Salford Royal Hospital. After graduating from University College London he undertook surgical training in the North West of England. His first hand surgery fellowship was at Wrightington Hospital followed by an orthoplastic BSSH TIG ATP fellowship at the Salford Royal and South Manchester Hospitals. He undertook travelling fellowships at Harvard Massachusetts General Hospital, USA, ASSH International Fellowship to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and BSSH Stack Fellowship to Institut de la Main Paris, Kaplan Barcelona and Hong Kong. He undertook the BSSH Masters in Hand Surgery with his thesis on the management of chronic carpal instability. His clinical interests include wrist pain, small joint arthroscopy, thumb base arthritis and trauma.

Zaf currently sits on FESSH Council as Chair of the Communications Committee as well as serving in FESSH Executive Committee and Finance Committee as observer. He is Honorary Treasurer and Officer of the BSSH, having served on BSSH Council, BSSH Instructional Courses of Hand Surgery and BSSH Cadaveric Masterclasses faculties. He is a member of the Journal of Hand Surgery (Eur) Committee of Management and has previously chaired the JHS(Eur) digital team which includes the delivery of the JHS(Eur) journal club webinars.
Insta/Twitter/FB/LinkedIN: @zafnaqui

Ole Reigstad
Oslo, Norway

Ole Reigstad (1969) is working as hand surgery consultant and is head of Hand and Foot department at Martina Hansens Hospital in Oslo, Norway. He is MD (1998), specialist in orthopedic surgery (2006), and defended his PhD "Wrist arthroplasty: bone fixation, clinical development and mid- to long term results" in 2013. He has the Norwegian Diploma in Hand surgery (2011) and is a fellow of the European Board of Hand Surgery (EBHS) from 2017. His research interest includes a variety of orthopedic and hand surgery subjects, with a special interest in carpal injuries, scaphoid non-union, wrist and hand arthrosis, small joint arthroplasties and biomaterials. He is tutoring medical students and specialist candidates in hand surgery and teaches at specialist courses in orthopedic and hand surgery in Norway and Sweden and on international courses including FESSH academy courses. He has published more than 35 peer reviewed papers as well as book chapters. In 2011 he was part of the organizing committee for FESSH (Oslo) and is a member of the scientific committee for FESSH 2024 (Rotterdam). He is Norwegian delegate and vice president to the Scandinavian Society for Surgery of the Hand (SSSH).

Sumedh Talwalkar
Wrightington, UK

Sumedh qualified from the University of Bombay and from the KEM Hospital in Mumbai. He completed his Orthopaedic training in the Northwest of England, having worked as a Senior Fellow in Upper Limb Surgery at Wrightington Hospital prior to taking up his Consultant post in 2009.
Sumedh is currently the Divisional Medical Director of Specialist Services for the trust and was recently elected to the council of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand.
He manages the highly successful FRCS Hand Course, which is held three times a year. He has a strong interest in research and undertook a year out of training at the University of Manchester investigating the role of fibroblasts in the healing of intra-synovial tendon injuries. He has presented at many national and international meetings and has published more than 20 papers and contributed to textbooks. He continues to maintain strong links with the Universities of Manchester and Salford and is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Edge Hill University. Sumedh's main interest lies in upper limb joint arthroplasty, including replacements of the small joints of the hand, wrist and elbow. In addition to this he is involved in the management of upper limb trauma, at Wigan, where in addition to local referrals, he manages a tertiary referral service for complex injuries from other regions.
Speciality Areas:

• Hand and Wrist Surgery : Rheumatoid Hand,
• Joint Replacements, 1st CMC joint Arthroscopy,
• Wrist Arthroscopy, Tendon and Nerve Surgery, Dupuytrens, Ganglions, Carpal Tunnel, Fractures/Non Unions/Mal Unions
• Elbow Surgery: Elbow Arthroscopy, Elbow and Radial Head Replacements, Trauma, Tennis and Golfers Elbow
• Shoulder Surgery: Shoulder Trauma, Shoulder Arthroscopy, Shoulder Replacements.

Brigitte van der Heijden
's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

Brigitte van der Heijden is plastic surgeon, specialized in Hand and Wrist Surgery and her field of interest is treatment of arthrosis and trauma. She is acting chairman of the FESSH Congress Committee, and she was the president of the Dutch Society for Surgery of the Hand (2018). She works in the Jeroen Bosch Hospital in 's-Hertogenbosch.
Currently, she is the secretary general of the Federation of European Societies for Surgery of the Hand (FESSH).