Justin Cobb

Last updated

Justin Cobb
Education Magdalen College, Oxford
OccupationSurgeon
Known for
  • Robotic orthopaedic surgery
  • Royal orthopaedic surgeon to the King
Medical career
Profession Surgeon
Field Orthopedics
Institutions
Sub-specialtiesRobotic knee surgery
Research Haptic based robotics

Justin Peter Cobb CVO is a British professor of orthopaedic surgery at Imperial College London, known for introducing medical robotics into orthopaedic surgery. He is a member of the Royal Medical Household and is royal orthopaedic surgeon to the King. He is on the staff at King Edward VII's Hospital (KEVII) and is civilian advisor in orthopaedics to the Royal Air Force (RAF). His research has also included themes relating to designing new devices such as for ceramic hip resurfacing, 3D printing in orthopaedics, and training in surgical skills. He is a director of the MSk laboratory based in the Sir Michael Uren Hub.

Contents

Cobb was a demy at Magdalen College, Oxford, from where he graduated in 1982. He completed his early surgical training at St Thomas' Hospital, The Middlesex and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH). In 1991 he was appointed consultant at The Middlesex and University College Hospital (UCH), and worked at the London Bone Tumour Unit, and in trauma and general orthopaedics. He is a recipient of the Hunterian Professorship, awarded for his work on surgery and osteosarcoma. Together with engineer Brian Davies from Imperial, he developed the world's first haptic based robotic assistant known as 'Acrobot', used to assist in knee surgery.

In 1999 he operated on the wounded following the London nail bombings, and he treated the injured following the 2005 attacks in London.

Education and training

Magdalen College, where Cobb was a demy Oxford - Magdalen College 5.JPG
Magdalen College, where Cobb was a demy

Justin Cobb was a demy at Magdalen College, Oxford, from where he graduated in 1982. [1] [2] He moved to London as a senior house officer in 1984, and completed his junior surgical training before rotating through orthopaedic firms at St Thomas', The Middlesex and the RNOH, including working for Sir Rodney Sweetnam in 1985. [3] At the RNOH, as orthopaedic registrar, [4] his work with Gordon Blunn and Peter Walker in the Biomedical Engineering Unit, led to being awarded the Hunterian Professorship. [1] [a] He completed his master's in 1991 with a thesis titled "Prognostic factors in operable osteosarcoma". [6]

Surgical career

In 1991 Cobb was appointed consultant at The Middlesex and UCH, and worked at the London Bone Tumour Unit, and in trauma and general orthopaedics. [2] [7] In 1992, he delivered the Hunterian oration. [1] [6] [7]

In 1992 he received his first grant from the special trustees of The Middlesex and UCH, for the purpose of research in robotics in orthopaedic surgery. [6] Together with engineer Brian Davies from Imperial College, his work led to the development of 'Acrobot', the world's first haptic based robot for orthopaedics. [1] [6] [8] In 1999 they co-founded the spinout 'Acrobot'. [9] Cobb operated with the robot first in 2000. [10] [11] Acrobot was originally designed to be used in total knee replacement surgery with application for use in unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA). [12] It allowed the surgeon to stay in touch with the patient and control the cutting tool at the same time as moving the robotic arm. [11] He subsequently reported a randomized, double-blinded study comparing the Acrobot with traditional knee surgery. [11] [13] It showed that the tactile-guided robot-assisted UKA was more precise than the traditional manually performed UKA. [11] [13] Where only 40% of traditionally operated knees were in the desired orientation, all of the robotic assisted knees were found to be within the desired two degrees offsimon orientation. [11] Acrobot was acquired by Stanmore Implants in 2010. [12] When the FDA approved Acrobot for clinical use in the USA, Mako surgical acquired the company, prior to Stryker acquiring Mako. [12] His research has also included themes relating to designing new devices such as for ceramic hip resurfacing, [14] [15] 3D printing to allow a minimally invasive joint preservation surgery, training in surgical skills, and looking at the impact of exercise, disability and drugs on bone health and material properties. [1]

In 1999, along with plastic surgeon Gus McGrouther, he treated the wounded following the London nail bombings. [16] [17] [18] He was appointed chair of orthopaedics at Imperial College London in 2005. [1] That year he had also treated the wounded of the 2005 London bombings. [7] As member of the Royal Medical Household, he was appointed royal orthopaedic surgeon to the Queen in 2008, and later to the King [2] He is on the staff at King Edward VII's Hospital, and within the Royal Air Force, he is a civilian advisor. [3] [19]

MSk laboratory

Sir Michael Uren Building, houses the MSk laboratory Sir Michael Uren Building, White City, from north side.jpg
Sir Michael Uren Building, houses the MSk laboratory

Cobb is credited for developing the MSk laboratory at Imperial's Charing Cross campus, later based in the Sir Michael Uren Hub. [3] [20] Sir Michael Uren pledged £40m towards a building designed as a hub for scientists, engineers, clinicians and patients. [21] It was opened in December 2020 with Cobb and Alison McGregor as the MSk Lab's directors. [20] [22]

Honours

Cobb was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in the 2023 New Year Honours for his services as orthopaedic surgeon to the King. [23] [24]

Personal and family

In 1985, he married Iona, a general practitioner, and they have four children. [2]

Selected publications

Books

Articles

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The Hunterian Professorship is awarded annually by the Royal College of Surgeons to a young surgeon for original research in surgery. [5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Professor Justin Cobb". King Edward VII's Hospital. Archived from the original on 5 January 2022. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Bone & Joint 360". Bone & Joint Publishing. Archived from the original on 29 January 2022. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 "Bone & Joint 360". Bone & Joint Publishing. Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  4. ↑ Stoker, Dj; Cobb, Jp; Pringle, Ja (May 1991). "Needle biopsy of musculoskeletal lesions. A review of 208 procedures" . The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. British Volume. 73-B (3): 498–500. doi:10.1302/0301-620X.73B3.1670457. ISSN   0301-620X. PMID   1670457.
  5. ↑ Marks, Charles (August 2007). Threads of Destiny: A Surgeon's Odyssey. Mustang, Oklahoma: Tate Publishing. ISBN   978-1-60247-350-8.
  6. 1 2 3 4 The Association of Surgeons in Training (PDF). March 2014. p. 37.
  7. 1 2 3 Edgar, Michael; Cobb, Justin. "9. The last fifteen years of orthopaedics at the Middlesex Hospital". The Middlesex Hospital Orthopaedic Department 1920-2005 (PDF). pp. 55–58.
  8. ↑ Campbell, Denis (14 June 2008). "Robot takes the pain and guesswork out of knee and hip replacements". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 28 April 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  9. ↑ "Simon Harris". www.imperial.ac.uk. Imperial College London. Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  10. ↑ Roche, Martin; Conditt, Michael (2014). "51. Robotic arm-assisted unicompartmental knee arthroplasty: preoperative planning and surgical technique". In Jolesz, Ferenc A. (ed.). Intraoperative Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy. New York: Springer. p. 678. ISBN   978-1-4614-7656-6.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Conditt, Michael (2011). "27. History of robotics in medicine". In Rosen, Jacob; Hannaford, Blake; Satava, Richard M. (eds.). Surgical Robotics: Systems Applications and Visions. New York: Springer Science & Business Media. p. 672. ISBN   978-1-4419-1125-4.
  12. 1 2 3 Althaus, Aaron; Long, William J.; Vigdorchik, Jonathan M. (2017). "163. Robotic unicompartmental knee arthroplasty". In Scott, W. Norman (ed.). Insall & Scott Surgery of the Knee (Sixth ed.). Elsevier. p. 1813. ISBN   978-0-323-47854-0.
  13. 1 2 Leelasestaporn, Chumroonkiet (2018). "6. Robotic UKA". In Sugano, Nobuhiko (ed.). Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery for Hip and Knee: Current State of the Art in Clinical Application and Basic Research. Singapore: Springer. p. 64. ISBN   978-981-10-5244-6.
  14. ↑ "A Prospective, Non-randomized, Consecutive Series, Multicentre, Observational Study to Evaluate the Clinical Outcome of ceramic-on- Ceramic Hip Resurfacing Arthroplasty Using the Ceramic, Non-porous, Non-cemented H1 Hip Resurfacing Arthroplasty". Clinical Trials. clinicaltrials.gov. 15 October 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  15. ↑ "Imperial College London trials ceramic hip resurfacing implant". Medical Device Network. 8 February 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  16. ↑ "BBC News | The nail bomb terror | Blood stocks rise after Soho bomb appeal". news.bbc.co.uk. 1 May 1999. Archived from the original on 2 February 2022. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  17. ↑ Bosely, Sarah (7 May 1999). "Surgeon regrets bomb response". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 February 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  18. ↑ Ng, R. L.; James, S. E.; Philp, B.; Floyd, D.; Ross, D. A.; Butler, P. E.; Brough, M. D.; McGrouther, D. A. (September 2001). "The Soho nail bomb: the UCH experience. University College Hospital". Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 83 (5): 297–301. ISSN   0035-8843. PMC   2503406 . PMID   11806551.
  19. ↑ Bohr, Adam; Memarzadeh, Kaveh (2020). "Biographies". Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare. Academic Press. p. xvi. ISBN   978-0-12-818438-7.
  20. 1 2 "Sir Michael Uren Hub". Imperial College London. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  21. ↑ "£40M gift to create new biomedical engineering centre at Imperial | Imperial News | Imperial College London". Imperial News. 27 May 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  22. ↑ O'Neill, Laura (8 December 2021). "'Landmark' biomedical engineering hub opens in London". Health Tech World. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  23. ↑ "Justin Cobb". profiles.imperial.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 30 July 2025. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  24. ↑ "No. 63918". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N4.
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