Mrs Riem Johnson

Riem Johnson started working as an Orthopaedic hand consultant in the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust on 23rd April 2018. Prior to this she was a locum Hand consultant in the Pulvertaft Hand Unit in Derby for 5 months, following completion of her post-CCT Orthoplastics Hand Surgery fellowship at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London. Her higher surgical T&O training took place in the Northern Deanery. She was awarded the advanced postgraduate British Diploma in Hand Surgery on 18th June 2018. During her time as a Specialty Trainee and particularly during her fellowship, she acquired skills in most aspects of adult and paediatric hand and wrist trauma. This includes soft tissue trauma, infection, fractures, carpal injuries and complex distal radius fixation. She attended the Northwick Park microsurgery course in 2016 and has been able to develop and maintain her skills in neurovascular repair. With regards to elective work, Riem Johnson performs common procedures such as carpal tunnel decompression, Dupuytren’s procedures, trapeziectomy, trigger finger and is developing her experience and interest in wrist arthroscopy, wrist fusion, wrist replacement and CMCJ (thumb base) replacement. Chelsea & Westminster Hospital is a tertiary referral centre for congenital hand pathology and so Mrs Johnson had the opportunity to be involved in weekly clinics and operating lists, working closely with both plastic and orthopaedic surgeons in both London and Derby to enrich her experience. Alongside clinical duties as a consultant, Riem was the clinical governance lead for her department for 4 years. She continues to develop her interest in training, teaching and supervision of trainees.She is currently both and educational supervisor and a clinical supervisor. Working in a major trauma centre, Riem has also kept her ATLS instructor position up to date and teaches biannually on Sussex courses. Throughout her own training, she was involved in teaching and examining medical students, nursing staff and physiotherapists, and is also involved in national recruitment of surgical trainees. She has an active role in research (having worked in collaboration with a PhD student at Imperial College, studying the morphology of the first carpometacarpal joint). Throughout my training I have published and presented papers to learned societies and in 2006, completed an MD with commendation at the University of Newcastle on the role of mitochondrial DNA mutations and their role in colorectal tumours. She was the BSUH Principal Investigator for the NIHR funded national multicentre randomised controlled DISC Trial, comparing surgery versus collagenase injections in the treatment of Dupuytren’s disease. Currently, she is the sustainability lead for the T&O department in UHSussex NHS FT, working towards evidence based practice in reducing the carbon footprint in theatre, starting with the safe use of reusable gowns in hand surgery.

·Management of peripheral nerve compression (eg carpal tunnel, ulnar nerve compression at the elbow or wrist) ·Trigger finger ·Dupuytren’s disease ·Management of osteoarthritis in the hand and wrist (eg thumb base procedures-trapeziectomy or arthroplasty) ·Tendon transfers ·Management of lumps (eg ganglia, GCT tendon sheath, haemangiomata).