BSW 2021 Faculty: Mark Slack

Mark Slack qualified as MD in Johannesburg at the University of the Witwatersrand. He then completed his postgraduate training at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur hospital. He graduated from the College of Medicine of South Africa winning the Daubenton Gold Medal for the most distinguished candidate in the exams in the country. After leaving South Africa he trained in Urogynaecology under John Sutherst in Liverpool. He was head of Gynaecology and Urogynaecology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, University of Cambridge Teaching Hospitals Trust, Cambridge. He is also a fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and an associate lecturer at the University of Cambridge.

Mr. Slack runs an active research unit in Cambridge. Research topics include surgery for pelvic floor disorders, the science behind the use of alloplastic materials, the microbiology behind disease and quality of life studies. He has published over 50 papers in the scientific literature and authored more than 20 chapters in books both on gynaecology and medicolegal matters.

He is a founder and director of CMR, a start-up company in Cambridge developing a surgical robot.

He was appointed the Ethicon travelling Professor in 2004 as well as the Sims Black Professorship of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists for 2005/6. In 2006 he was awarded a travelling Professorship to the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. He was recognised by the NIHR in 2015 as one of the leading researchers in the UK for clinical research.

He is currently involved with a project looking at ways of managing disciplinary matters more efficiently and fairly.

Other appointments have included membership of the British Society of Urogynaecology (BSUG) Executive Committee, the RCOG Audit and Guidelines Committee, Chairmanship of the BSUG Guidelines Committee and Membership of the Scientific Committee. He was on the Education Committee of the International Urogynaecology Association (IUGA) and the Chair of the IUGA Observership Scheme that has recently introduced fellowships allowing members to visit internationally renowned centres. He has served on the Scientific Committee of the IUGA. More recently he has been involved as an expert witness in the class actions suits in the United States about mesh materials. 

Mark  is an inspiring and charismatic  speaker whom we had the pleasure to welcome at last year’s BGES congress. His talk “All that glitters is not gold ; the problems of trends and fashions in medicine” will be the closing presentation on Friday’s September 10th plenary session.