Thyroid/ Parathyroid

Miss Katharine Davies graduated from Cardiff University in 2007. Having completed her specialty training within the Mersey region she undertook the Head and Neck Fellowship in Aintree University Hospital and took up post as a Consultant Head & Neck and Thyroid surgeon within Liverpool University Hospital NHS Trust in April 2020.

Her work involves both malignant and benign Head and Neck surgery including thyroid and salivary gland pathology. She is actively involved in the recruitment of patients to trials including PATHOS, BEST OF and PITSTOP and undertakes clinics both on the Aintree and Broadgreen site.

Outside of clinical work she is part of the education team delivering regular programmed medical student teaching within the trust. During her fellowship she created multiple surgical, anaesthetic and patient information videos that are used for education and training.

She is the co-creator of the recently designed Liverpool Head and Neck Centre website and the aforementioned videos will form a substantial part of this. As part of this media development she has been creating multiple patient and professional educational resources to better inform patients about conditions treated and the investigations and treatment they may undergo.

She is actively involved with improving the diagnostic pathway for patients with Head and Neck cancer and, in conjunction with the Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance, is working on ways to achieve earlier diagnosis for patients with Head and Neck Cancer with the aim of improving treatment outcomes. Moving this work forward she is hoping to identify ways to get patients with head and neck cancer to present earlier and is part of a health inequalities group looking at barriers to this and ways to improve it.

Jason Fleming is an academic clinician, working as a Consultant ENT/Head and Neck Surgeon and Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Liverpool. His clinical practice is based at Aintree Hospital, which includes a tertiary head and neck cancer service for the patients of St. Helens, Knowsley, Whiston and Warrington. His clinical practice includes all head and neck/thyroid surgery, with a particular interest in trans-oral surgery (robotic/laser), and salvage surgery for recurrent cancer.

Having graduated from higher surgical training in London and the South-East, including specialist placements at St. George’s Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital, and a research secondment to defend a PhD in cancer sciences, he went on to complete an advanced head and neck surgical oncology Fellowship at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital. He then became the first UK trainee to be appointed to the prestigious Ablative and Reconstructive Head and Neck Fellowship at University of Alabama (UAB, Birmingham, AL), where he received dedicated training in trans-oral robotic surgery at one of the early pioneering US centres for the technique.

As a surgeon scientist, Mr Fleming plays an active role in the research and teaching activity of the Liverpool Head and Neck Centre and University of Liverpool, and has been awarded over £2.5 million in research grants. He regularly presents internationally on his clinical and research interests, is widely published in high impact specialty journals and has authored a number of textbook chapters. He is the Fellowship Director for the Shaun Jackson Head and Neck / Thyroid Fellowship.

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Mr Lancaster was trained in Liverpool as both an under and post graduate since 1988.

He took up a consultant post at Aintree, joining the head & neck department in 2006. His current practice solely focuses on head & neck cancer; both the investigation of and treatment.

His clinical interests include the applications of trans-oral laser surgery of upper aero-digestive tract tumours and fistula reduction post laryngectomy.

Managerially he has a joint role with the Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance, working towards the creation of regional rapid diagnostic clinics for the early detection of head & neck cancer.

Mr Christopher Loh is a Consultant Thyroid and Head & Neck surgeon at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Having grown up in Singapore, he completed his medical degree at King’s College London before undertaking his specialty training in Mersey. He was the first Mersey ENT trainee to score highest in the UK for the FRCS exit exam, attaining the gold medal. Following on from this, Chris undertook the Head & Neck Fellowship at Aintree Hospital before joining the Liverpool Head and Neck Centre as a consultant in September 2017.

His current clinical scope of practice includes both malignant and benign thyroid and head & neck surgery. One of his specialist interests is Transoral Laser Microsurgery and Transoral Robotic Surgery of the upper aerodigestive tract. He has clinics at Aintree Hospital and Arrowe Park Hospital. In addition, he sees complex thyroid cases from outside of Cheshire & Merseyside. He works closely with, and operates jointly with colleagues at the Walton Centre and Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital. He is the chair of the regional Cheshire & Merseyside Thyroid Cancer MDT.

Outside of his clinical practice, Chris is the organiser of the LHNC Transoral Laser Microsurgery and Head & Neck Dissection courses which are held at the University of Liverpool. He is also active in clinical research at LHNC, recruiting patients into clinical trials including PATHOS, is a co-investigator of the Best-Of and PIT-STOP trials, and is the principal investigator of the HoT trial and LARCH research study. In addition, Chris has a particular interest in clinical informatics, and is an Associate Chief Clinical Information Officer at LUHFT.

Mr Roland is a Consultant ORL/Head & Neck Surgeon at Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust, UK. He has a particular interest in Head & Neck Surgery (including salivary gland, thyroid/parathyroid, and skin cancer surgery).

He served as the Chair of the University Hospital Aintree Head & Neck Cancer MDT and Chair of Merseyside and Cheshire Cancer Network Group (2004 -2012). He was the Royal College of Surgeons Regional Affairs Adviser for ENT (2003 -2012) and a member of the Surgical Training and Education Committee. He has been heavily involved with surgical training throughout his career and many practicing surgeons all over the UK have benefited from his guidance.

He was a member of ENT UK Clinical Practice Advisory and Audit Committee (2000- 2005) and served on ENT UK Council (2003-2012) and was Chairman of ENT UK Head & Neck Society (2012-2015). He was elected to represent ENT at BAHNO Council in 2009 and served as Honorary Secretary (2011 – 2019). He was bestowed with Honorary Life Membership of BAHNO in 2019.

Mr Roland has written over 70 peer reviewed publications. He has presented extensively, and regularly invited to lecture at National and International conferences. He has contributed to 14 textbooks and is first author of the widely acclaimed postgraduate textbook Key Topics in Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery (3rd edition, 2019). Considered to be “the exam bible”, this has helped a generation of ENT surgeons to successfully navigate post-graduate exams, including the Royal College of Surgeons Intercollegiate Examination and European Board Examination.

In 2009, he was appointed the National Lead to produce Multidisciplinary UK Consensus Guidelines for the Management of Head & Neck Cancer. He was the Lead Editor in its production in 2011 and 2016. This document is now regarded as a standard of care not only in the UK, but many other countries.

Mr Roland is the Clinical Director of the ORL/Head & Neck Surgery unit of Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK.

Miss Williams is a Consultant in Otorhinolaryngology at Liverpool Foundation Hospital Trust, and has a specialist interest in head and neck cancer diagnostics, benign head and neck, and thyroid surgery. She gained her MBChB from the University of Liverpool, and subsequently completed her postgraduate surgical training in both Mersey and the North West of England. She is audit lead for the department, head and neck lead for the regional registrar training program, and leads head and neck curriculum based learning for medical students at the University of Liverpool.

Mr Robert Hardy is a consultant endocrine surgeon who specialises in all aspects of thyroid and parathyroid surgery.

Miss Alison Waghorn has been Consultant Endocrine Surgeon since 1999. She specialises in all Thyroid /Parathyroid (and Adrenal Surgery) and is President of BAETS.

Regularly undertakes thyroid and parathyroid at Alder Hey Hospital and regularly undertakes retrosternal thyroid excision at LHCH.

Subspecialist interests:

• Children’s and Adults thyroid nodules/multinodular goitres/thyroid cancer

• Retrosternal thyroids

• Redo parathyroid surgery / parathyroid cancer surgery

• Genetic syndromes linked with thyroid and parathyroid disease

• Use of intraoperative PTH monitoring during parathyroid surgery

• Thyroid and Parathyroid surgery education

• Thyroid and Parathyroid medical replacement therapy after Surgery