John Hutchinson

John Hutchinson went to Medical School in Belfast and his Orthopaedic training was in the Royal Air Force and the Midlands of England. He underwent further training specialising in Spinal surgery after being awarded the FRCS(Orth) with fellowships and senior Registrar posts in Hartshill, Oswestry, Adelaide and Nottingham. In 1999/2000 he was the National Spine Fellow in the Queens Medical Centre.

John has been a Consultant and Senior lecturer in Bristol since 2000, with contracts at Frenchay, Bristol Childrens hospital and Weston-Super-Mare. He has an NHS practice covering all age groups, anatomical regions and Pathologies of the Spine. His major interest is complex deformity of the Paediatric and Adult Spine.

John has developed several instrumentation systems which are widely used in Spinal Surgery and has been an invited lecturer through out the world. In June 2008 he will undertake a lecture tour of 10 cities in USA.

He was the subject of a BBC documentary “YOUR LIFE IN THEIR HANDS” and is Orthopaedic advisor to the television drama Casualty.

He is an examiner for the Surgical Colleges of Great Britain and Ireland, and has published articles in Spinal journals and Orthopaedic textbooks. He is Chairman of the AO UK Spine forum and has taught on numerous courses for Spinal Surgeons, osteopaths, physiotherapists and nurses, both in Europe and North America.

Ian Nelson

Ian Nelson trained at Kings College and Westminster Medical School in London and graduated in 1979. He trained in Orthopaedic Surgery at University College Hospital in London, and was a lecturer at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford. In 1989 he was a paediatric and spine fellow at the Duchess of Kent Childrens Hospital in Hong Kong.

In 1992 he was appointed to the position of Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol. He in addition now works also at Bristol Children’s Hospital and Weston General Hospital.

His major areas of interest are the treatment of spinal deformities in children and adults and the management of disorders of the lumbar spine. He also treats spinal infections, trauma and tumours. He has published and presented papers on bracing in scoliosis, anterior surgery for idiopathic scoliosis, the outcomes of infections of the spine, unusual fractures of the spine, the use of traction films in scoliosis, the outcome of pedicle screw constructs in scoliosis surgery and disability in patients with degenerative changes in the lumbar spine.

Ian has been the Secretary of the British Association of Spine Surgeons and is currently Secretary of the British Scoliosis Society. He is a council member of the British Scoliosis Research Foundation.