BIOGRAPHY
Professor Mike Parker is a retired consultant surgeon with 45 years experience in the NHS. He was a General Surgeon with a special interest in Laparoscopic surgery and Coloproctology. He gained a BSc (Hons) in Anatomy from University College, London in 1970 and then qualified from Westminster Hospital, London with MB, BS., LRCP, MRCS in 1973. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (FRCS) and of Edinburgh (FRCS Ed) in 1980 and gained an MS for a research thesis in 1987. He did his specialty training in SW Thames as well as The Royal Marsden and St Mark’s Hospitals, London.
After retiring from the NHS he spent four years training Consultant Surgeons in Denmark in the art of laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery and was awarded an Honorary Chair in Laparoscopic Training in Colorectal Surgery from the University Hospital of Aarhus in Denmark and Uppsala University in Sweden. In total he made 216 flights to and from Denmark to complete this training programme. Denmark now has one of the highest rates of laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery in the world with one of the lowest mortality rates and hospital stays worldwide. During his medical career he wrote 175 peer reviewed papers, abstracts and book chapters, and has given 237 invited national and international lectures and 8 Invited eponymous lectures. He has co-edited two books, an Atlas of Colorectal Surgery in two volumes, open and laparoscopic, recently published by Springer.
He is a past Council member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on which he served for 10 years from 2007 to 2017. He became an inaugural Fellow of the College Academy of Surgeon Educators in 2015 (FCASE.) He served as Chairman of the Dental and Surgical Examinations Board, Chairman of the International Affairs Board, Chairman of the Annals Board and Editor of the Bulletin of the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and was latterly Chairman of the Membership, Fellowship, Election and Prize Advisory Group. In 2014 he was elected Vice President. He has been an active member of the Court of Examiners since 2003.
He is a past President of the Surgical Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, past President of the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain & Ireland and past President of the Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons of Great Britain & Ireland. He is currently a Trustee, past member of Council and past Treasurer of the European Society of Coloproctology. He is a Past President of the St Mark’s Association.
He has Honorary Fellowships of the Society of South African Endoscopic Surgeons, the Association of Surgeons of India, the Caribbean College of Surgeons, the Brazilian College of Surgeons and the College of Surgeons of Peru; also Honorary Life Membership of the Colorectal Society of Australasia and New Zealand, the Caribbean Society of Endoscopic Surgeons, the European Society of Coloproctology and most recently of the Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland.
He is currently involved as a Director and Co-founder of Sirius Genesis Ltd, a surgical innovations company based in the UK.
He is also Medical Adviser to Love of the Game, an organisation dedicated to pursuing methods of protecting players against the consequences of concussion injuries in all sports. He was previously one of the Medical Officers to the Rugby Football Union at Twickenham between 1994 and 2006.
When not attending to other matters Mike is also a sailor, a jazz and blues pianist, a rugby football supporter, a member of the MCC and he holds a current pilot’s licence. He is married to Carol and has two children, two step-children and three grandchildren.