23 Sep ORTHO CONSULTING GROUP (OCG) WELCOMES CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER ALI PHILLIPS
In August Ortho Consulting Group (OCG) welcomed Ali Phillips to the team in the newly created role of Chief Medical Officer.
An orthopaedic trauma surgeon working out of the major trauma centre in Southampton, Ali specialises in hand, wrist and elbow surgery and has a special interest in local anaesthetics. He is also chair of the charity Walant.Surgery, an educational not-for-profit educating members of the public and the surgical profession about the use of WALANT (Wide Awake Local Anaesthetic No Tourniquet) hand surgery.
We spoke to Ali to find out more about his role, his experience working with the OCG team and his hopes for the development of WALANT in the next 12 months.
How did this role come about?
“Having turned Walant.Surgery into a charity in 2018, I needed help with logistics, regulatory issues and marketing and OCG have been helping me with this. We believe lots of companies need expert, specialist clinical input in surgery and within orthopaedics particularly, and joining the business as Chief Medical Officer was the logical next step.
“Having worked in the NHS for 20 years and having been procurement lead for the last five years, I have an intimate understanding of procurement systems, how they work and how trusts get kits into hospital. I’m very excited about working with the team, Matt [Woods, OCG founder] has built the company on a very important ethic – which is doing the right thing and building for the future.”
What have you enjoyed about your new role so far?
“Coming to the office in Newbury has become my favourite day of the week. What is amazing about OCG is that nothing is off the table, the business is always innovating and looking at ways to disrupt the industry and that’s what I am excited about.
“It’s been great sharing my knowledge of the NHS with the team and making sure we are providing best in class internal product and medical training.”
Tell us about WALANT and your goals for the next 12 months.
“WALANT is a very simple idea. When carrying out surgery with a local anaesthetic, you have to use a tourniquet and this presents a time challenge – to complete the surgery before the tourniquet starts to hurt too much. If you use adrenaline with your local anaesthetic, you don’t need a tourniquet because the adrenaline closes the blood vessels down and this allows you to do longer and different operations from more varied operating lists.
“WALANT opens the door to cheaper and more efficient ways of doing surgery, you can give it in such a way that it doesn’t hurt and so patients trust you more, and you can combine it with field sterility so you can do it in operating theatres outside the main theatre complex.
“Over the next 12 months we plan to redesign the website and start a patient side to educate them and allow them to choose WALANT as a preference for their surgery.”
“Ali is a hugely experienced surgeon with a fantastic network, who will provide strong clinical expertise and scientific leadership within the business,” said OCG founder Matt Woods.
“He has assumed a senior leadership role and will be a key member of the company’s executive team and will work with high level stakeholders across our client portfolio. Ali will be an integral part of the company’s growth as we look forward to an exciting 2022.”
CONTACT DETAILS
Email: aliphilips@orthocg.com