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Biography

I studied medicine at the University of Oxford, and subsequently trained in anaesthesia in Birmingham and Oxford. I now practise as an NHS consultant in the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, with roles in education and simulation. Throughout my training and consultant career I have maintained a strong interest in the provision of safe anaesthesia in low-income settings, and have ongoing commitments to clinical, training and research projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

Hilary Edgcombe

BM, BCh (Oxon), FRCA (Lon), MSc Global Health (KCL)


Consultant Anaesthetist

Research and training in global anaesthesia

Areas of interest

  • Development and evaluation of smartphone-based teaching tools for the low-income setting, as part of the LIFE project
  • Education and training of anaesthesia providers in low-resource settings
  • Director of the "Anaesthesia in Developing Countries" course, Oxford/Uganda

Safe anaesthesia is a clear prerequisite for safe surgery worldwide. Billions remain unable to access life-saving operations: an important contributor to this problem is a lack of reliable anaesthetic services.

My current research focuses on the experience of non-physician anaesthesia providers in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly exploring how well their training prepares them for practice. I am also a founding and active member of the LIFE project (with team members from Kenya, the Centre for Tropical Medicine and the Department of Education in Oxford), developing novel smartphone-based training tools for health workers in low-resource settings.

I am course director for the established and internationally popular "Anaesthesia in Developing Countries" course, held annually in Uganda.

I am also a founding and active member of the Oxford Global Surgery Group committee. As a group, we link clinicians and researchers in Oxford who have global surgical health interests at termly networking meetings, offer a global surgery special study module for medical students and a short academic course in global surgery for anaesthetists, obstetricians and surgeons, which will next be held online on September 18th, 2020.