Andrew Wallace graduated from medical school at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia in 1987 followed by postgraduate research in bone healing leading to a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. He returned to Sydney to complete his orthopaedic training, followed by fellowships in shoulder surgery in Sydney and in Calgary, Canada.
Whilst in Canada he developed an interest in basic science aspects of soft tissue healing, and the relationship of shoulder instability to arthritis. He was appointed Senior Lecturer in Musculoskeletal Surgery at Imperial College London in 1999 and has worked in the NHS as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital and St Mary’s Hospital.
His major clinical interest is in the field of shoulder surgery, particularly the development of arthroscopic techniques for minimally-invasive reconstruction. In addition to an interest in sports injuries he also undertakes shoulder joint replacement. He is the principal orthopaedic shoulder surgeon to professional rugby clubs in the south of England and to the English Rugby Football Union, and has treated elite athletes from Premiership football clubs, the England and Wales Cricket Board, the Board of Cricket Control for India, the British Olympic Association, the British Judo Association and the English Institute of Sport.
He has published widely on the biology and mechanics of soft connective tissues, particularly ligament and tendon, and development of novel methods of joint stabilisation for prevention of degenerative joint disease. In 2002 he was the Travelling Fellow of the European Society for Surgery of the Shoulder and Elbow to the USA, and is an active member of that society, the British Elbow and Shoulder Society and the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons. He is on the Editorial Board of the British Shoulder and Elbow journal and reviews for the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery and the Bone and Joint Journal.
In 2003 he established the Watanabe Club, a group of shoulder arthroscopists dedicated to the promotion and teaching of arthroscopic shoulder surgery. In 2009 he was elected to Membership of the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine in the United Kingdom, and also elected to Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. In 2012 he was selected as the lead shoulder surgeon for the London Olympic Games. Over the last 15 years, he has treated over 15,000 patients in private practice and annually performs approximately 400 operative procedures.
