Rhiannon Harries is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon based at Morriston Hospital, Swansea. She qualified from Peninsula Medical School in 2007, completed her surgical training within the Wales Deanery and undertook a post-CCT fellowship in complex abdominal wall reconstruction at Exeter. Her clinical interests lie in colorectal and hernia surgery, and wound healing, and she has published widely with over 50 peer-reviewed papers. She was previously awarded a Royal College of Surgeons Research Fellowship towards her MD awarded by Cardiff University for her research investigated the clinical relevance of Pigment Epithelial Derived Factor in colorectal cancer and wound healing. She is extremely active in collaborative clinical research, currently being a co-investigator for the Hughes Abdominal Repair Trial (HART), a NIHR funded randomised controlled trial comparing suturing techniques for abdominal wall closure in order to prevent incisional hernia formation.
Ruwan Weerakkody studied Medicine at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. He completed foundation training in Cambridge, and worked as a Senior House Officer in Melbourne, Australia. He undertook an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship and Wellcome Trust Clinical Training (PhD) fellowship, based at Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh, where he studied the genetics of Ehlers Danlos syndrome and Aortic aneurysm. He is currently a Vascular Surgery Registrar in the London Deanery, currently at the Royal Free Hospital, London, UK.