Dr. Michael Beverly University of Oxford, UK

During his training in London, Dr. Beverly researched bone density changes with loading exercise and intraosseous pressure physiology. There followed a full-time NHS orthopaedic consultant career at Ealing Hospital in West London, operating on trauma, paediatrics, joint replacement, spinal, upper and lower limb surgery. He was also able to work... read moreand teach abroad for the Red Cross and ICRC, Royal College of Surgeons and other NGOs in Africa, India and the Far East. On retiring, Dr. Beverly was offered the chance to pursue his ideas in Oxford at St Peter’s College, for a DPhil in musculo-skeletal research based at the Botnar Research Centre under Professor David Murray and others. That recently completed DPhil offers a totally fresh understanding of joint function and anatomy. It describes a new field of subchondral physiology. They showed that joints bear enormous loads through micro-flexible perfused subchondral tissues, transferring the load through semi-liquid fat onto the trabeculae. The trabeculae coalesce and pass the load onto the long bone shaft. The local circulation is beautifully modified to cope with sudden pressure increases but allow perfusion at normal pressures when unloaded. The ‘vasculo-mechanical’ theory offers a new understanding of, means of diagnosis of, and treatments for osteoarthritis.