Scientific Committee
The aim of the Scientific Committee is to advance study & research in Foot & Ankle surgery.
Key activities of this committee include:
- Supporting research through the awarding of grants.
- Facilitating surveys of the BOFAS membership.
- Abstract reviews for both the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) and BOFAS annual scientific meetings.
- Award of prizes for the best podium and poster presentations at the annual scientific meeting.
- Support in finishing scientific papers for publication.
- Development of commissioning pathways.
- Guidance in HRG coding.
Membership of SciComm:
Elected Members
- Chair: Sarah Johnson-Lynn
- Secretary: Dev Mahadevan
- Member: Kailash Devalia
- Member: Toby Jennison
- Member: Adrian Kendall
- Member: Madhu Tiruveedhula
Co-opted / Working Group Members:
Sarah Johnson-Lynn - Chair Scientific Committee
Sarah Johnson-Lynn is a Senior Lecturer with Hull York Medical School and an Honorary Consultant Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Surgeon at James Cook University Hospital, with interests in diabetic foot surgery and foot and ankle trauma. She graduated from Newcastle University and completed specialty orthopaedic training in the North East. Fellowships in foot and ankle surgery at Addenbrookes Hospital and in trauma and limb reconstruction at Leeds General Infirmary followed, as well as a British Orthopaedic Research Society travelling fellowship in Asia and Australia. She completed a PhD at Newcastle University, continues to lead clinical and qualitative research projects and teaches on the faculty of several national courses.
Elected: November 2025
Dev Mahadevan - Secretary
Dev Mahadevan is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Trust. He graduated from the University of Nottingham and completed his specialist orthopaedic training in the East Midlands Deanery. His fellowship training was at the Avon Orthopaedic Centre in Bristol. Dev is actively involved in research and has a strong research portfolio. He is committed to medical education and is a faculty member of several national courses.
Elected: March 2021 | Re-elected: March 2024
Kailash Devalia
Kailash Devalia is a Consultant Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Surgeon with advanced fellowship training from leading centres, including Sheffield Teaching Hospital and Zurich. His specialist practice covers complex foot and ankle reconstruction, sports injuries, osteochondral lesions and cutting-edge cartilage restoration techniques. As a product developer, he designed the Grappler R3Inforce, an innovative system for anatomical syndesmotic reconstruction. He also leads the application of the AMIC technique for cartilage regeneration in the foot, including pioneering work in metatarsal pathology and Freiberg’s disease. Alongside his clinical practice, he maintains a strong research portfolio focused on advancing outcomes in sports medicine and cartilage repair. He is deeply committed to education, serving as faculty on national courses and international meetings. Within his NHS role, he champions multidisciplinary service development and preventative strategies, delivering patient-centred, evidence-driven surgical care.
Elected: November 2025
Toby Jennison
Toby Jennison is a Consultant orthopaedic foot & ankle surgeon at University Hospital Plymouth NHS Trust. He completed a Foot & Ankle Fellowship in Sheffield Teaching Hospital and was a TIG Major trauma fellow at University Hospital Birmingham. Toby also worked with the NJR as a research Fellow.
Elected: March 2023 | Re-elected: November 2025
Adrian Kendal
Adrian Kendal is actively involved in research which aims to improve patients with lower-limb musculoskeletal disease through big-data analysis at both cellular and national population levels. He was the first to apply single-cell transcriptomic and proteomics to identify tendon cell sub-types and explore their roles in tendinopathy progression. At a national population level, Adrian has led England studies investigating the safety and long-term outcomes of common foot and ankle procedures. These define benchmarks for the delivery of high-volume operations, providing evidence to support counselling, equitable access, service delivery, and quality improvement across the NHS. He has compared treatment pathways for end-stage ankle arthritis, generating real-world revision trajectories that inform shared decision-making when choosing between total ankle replacement and ankle fusion. His population based analysis on below-knee amputation in people with diabetes emphasises the unacceptably high rate of post-operative mortality, re-intervention, and readmission in this vulnerable patient group. Alongside his clinical practice, he maintains a strong research portfolio focused on advancing outcomes in sports medicine and cartilage repair. He is deeply committed to education, serving as faculty on national courses and international meetings. Within his NHS role, he champions multidisciplinary service development and preventative strategies, delivering patient-centred, evidence-driven surgical care.
Elected: November 2025
Madhu Tiruveedhula
Mr Madhu Tiruveedhula is currently working as Consultant Orthopaedic surgeon at Basildon Hospital, part of Mid & South Essex NHS Foundation Trust. His speciality interests are Adult Foot & Ankle surgery including Diabetic Foot reconstruction and Paediatric Orthopaedics. His primary aim is to promote preventive strategies for diabetic foot related complications and hence involved in organising teaching sessions and practical workshops. He organised workshops on Diabetic foot reconstructions, conducted webinars and speak as invited faculty in the national and international diabetic foot conferences. He co-organised the 9th Annual International Association of Diabetic Foot Surgeons conference in Nov 2023. He is currently working on PROMs for diabetic foot reconstructions and actively involved in publishing clinical outcomes.
Elected: March 2024
Nijil Vasukutty
Nijil Vasukutty is currently consultant orthopaedic foot and ankle surgeon with his NHS practice based in United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust. He completed his foot and ankle training in Southampton University Hospital and University Hospital of South Manchester, followed by Diabetic Foot training at King's College Hospital. He has maintained a keen interest in research with several publications in foot and ankle surgery and lower limb arthroplasty in addition to large number of national and international presentations. Mr Vasukutty has a postgraduate qualification in medical education from University of Glasgow. His educational roles include Academic Lead for Orthopaedics at University of Lincoln Medical School, College Tutor and Specialty Education Lead at United Lincolnshire Hospitals (Boston site). His current research interests are mainly around diabetic foot surgery.
Elected: March 2023
Mr James Ritchie - Co-opted Member
James Ritchie is a Consultant Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Surgeon based in Tunbridge Wells and was appointed in 2005. He trained in the SE Thames Region and has undertaken a Specialist Foot & Ankle Fellowship at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore. He is committed to medical education and runs the South East Thames Foot and Ankle training programme and the Guy's Hospital Foot and Ankle Course .