Background and Qualifications
Mr Wadley graduated in Medicine MB ChB with distinction from the renowned Liverpool Medical School in 1989, being awarded the MPS Prizes for both Medicine and Surgery, and underwent basic surgical training in Liverpool, Edinburgh and London.
He received specialist higher training in Neurosurgery in London Teaching Hospital Units on the North Thames Neurosurgical Training Programme, as well as neurosurgical fellowships working in Pittsburgh, USA and St. Louis, USA.
Mr Wadley was awarded first prizes for research papers presented at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons USA Meeting in Boston in 1999 and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons USA (Paediatric Section) in New York in 2001.
For two years he performed pioneering academic research and development in the emerging technology of neuronavigation in brain surgery at the Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, in submission for the MS degree at University College London. The EASI Project was conducted in collaboration with Philips Medical Systems BV in the Netherlands, and funded by the European Commission under the 4th Telematics Framework, and was one of the most successful research frameworks in Europe at that time, paving the way for neuronavigation technologies to become what is now a routine part of modern brain and spine surgery.
He obtained the Intercollegiate Specialist Fellowship in Neurological Surgery, FRCS (SN), in 2000 and was appointed as Consultant Neurosurgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and The Royal London Hospital, and the London Gamma Knife Centre at Bart’s in 2001. He has over 50 peer-reviewed academic publications in medical journals, and book chapters.
He also has dedicated interests in teaching and medical education within the Medical College of St. Bartholomew’s and nationally, being the convenor of the National Specialist Fellowship Course in Neurosurgery, preparing young neurosurgeons for their final exams before being appointed consultants, and was a neurosurgical tutor on teaching and cadaveric dissection courses at the Royal College of Surgeons of England between 2004 and 2009.
For many years Mr Wadley has been at the forefront of many technical advances in neurosurgery, including more recently the pioneering of artificial cervical disc arthroplasty and motion preservation technology in the cervical spine. In 2014 he set up a training proctorship and course with NuVasive Inc. in New York, USA, to train North American neurosurgeons and orthopaedic spinal surgeons in PCM cervical arthroplasty techniques, of which he has the largest series worldwide (over 500 cases in more than 20 years of follow-up).
Mr Wadley is the senior neurosurgeon at The Royal London Hospital, Britain and Europe’s largest and leading Major Trauma Centre (MTC), augmented by the two helicopters of the HEMS. The Royal London NeuroTrauma Unit is a specialist brain injury unit that admits the highest volume of severe traumatic brain injuries per year in the UK, and performs the largest number of complex spine procedures nationally for spinal injuries. The Royal London NeuroTrauma Service has had a leading role in the four major terrorist incidents in London in the last 20 years.
Between 2004 and 2013 he was the lead investigator at Barts & the London for the major multicentre international RESCUEicp trial in traumatic brain injury (TBI), run by colleagues from Cambridge University and published in the New England Journal of Medicine (N Engl J Med 2016; 375:1119-1130), and which was a major international advance in TBI management. The 10-year follow-up paper is to be published soon in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Mr Wadley also has other senior responsibilities outside clinical practice, including:
In 2020 he was appointed an expert neurosurgical witness to the General Medical Council (GMC), preparing Documented Discussions to the Registrar and the Case Examiners, and detailed Expert Reports in Fitness to Practice Hearings.
In 2022 he was appointed an External Clinical Advisor to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.