Hello. My name is Iain Hutchison. I am an oral and maxillofacial surgeon specialising in head and neck cancer and reconstruction. I have spent a long time working with great neurosurgeons tackling those tumours that straddle the brain-face interface, and also disassembling peoples’ faces so they could get access to parts they couldn’t otherwise reach.
About ten years ago I met Mr Verity, the surgeon you now know as the Hospitaller for that great humanitarian organisation, St John. Its probably the largest of its kind in the world, and having spent the last decade tackling cases that were rather difficult, in the next decade we shall try to tackle something much larger. I shall be helping as Director of the National Facial Oral Oculoplastic Research Centre, shortened to NFORC. Our aim is to do multi-centre international trials. We have already done multicentre national trials. One published in the British Journal of Cancer last year included 28 hospitals and 68 surgeons.
So the opportunity to do clinical research to find out which treatment works best in all conditions affecting the eye and the face is immense. It is an immense challenge, but also an exciting one because there will be so many patients we can recruit into studies, or simply collect data on them to find out which treatment works best. We are all faced with conundrums where we have two treatments that work very well. But which one is actually the best of those, and in what situation? Through St John and NFORC we have an opportunity to do this research which should transform the world of facial oral and oculoplastic surgery.
Thank you.
Iain Hutchison
Bio: Iain Hutchison BDS FRCS FFDRSCI FDSRCS was appointed Consultant Surgeon to St Bartholomew's, The Royal London Hospital & Homerton Hospitals in 1989, and to a professorship in 2007. He founded the UK Oral Cancer Research Group, is Director of the National Facial and Oral and Oculoplastic Research Centre (NFORC), and in 2012 was elected President of the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.In 2019 the SOA was proud to become a research partner with NFORC.
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About SOA
The St John Ophthalmic Association was established in 2015 and is formed of clinicians, nurses, managers, and IT and healthcare professionals from across the world. The group exists to coordinate the post-graduate ophthalmic activities of the Order of St John, uniting supporters from all professional walks of life in support of The Order of St John.
The SOA not only supports the strategy of the Hospital Board in advancing teaching, training and research across all branches of the St John Eye Hospital Group (SJEHG), but also supports the developing St John Ophthalmic Hospital in Soweto, Johannesburg.
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