Meet your Orthopaedics Programme Director, Dr Firas Arnaout MD MSc FRCS (Tr&Orth)

Celebrating the launch of our brand new Orthopaedics PGDip and MSc programmes, we had the pleasure of meeting with Programme Director Dr Firas Arnaout to gain exclusive insights into the new course and his background in the field of Orthopaedic medicine.

The new Orthopaedics programmes have recently successfully achieved validation with our University partner the University of Buckingham, and we are now accepting applications.

Dr Arnaout is a Consultant Orthopaedic surgeon in the UK. As a practicing physician, Firas has a wealth of experience relating to orthopaedic and musculoskeletal medicine as well as a keen interest in orthopaedic education. He has authored multiple books and designed and delivered a number of online courses relating to the specialty, positioning him perfectly to lead the next generation of orthopaedic specialists on this programme.

“It’s the biggest surgical specialty in terms of curriculum, what it covers, and popularity. The majority of doctors in any speciality will come across musculoskeletal injury.”

The programme is highly flexible and the faculty have worked hard to make it as relevant as possible to a wide range of practitioners with cases that are directly applicable to their clinical practice. Reaching a wide audience of doctors, GPs, doctors in training, A&E Doctors, as well as other healthcare professionals; Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Nurse Practitioners, Osteopaths and Chiropractors, our orthopaedics courses can have a huge impact not only in the UK but internationally, because this programme is needed globally.

The six modules of the programme are designed to cover the six main topics of orthopaedic curriculum, and we’ve been careful to ensure that the content is internationally relevant. Read on to learn more about the orthopaedic courses and Dr Firas Arnaout.

What inspired you to specialise in Orthopaedics?

“Out of all the specialties, orthopaedics is one where an intervention will hugely change a patient’s quality of life - whether treating a fracture, performing a joint replacement or curing a muscle injury - it’s possible to completely change someone’s life within just a few days, which is true of very, very few medical interventions.

Orthopaedics is also a very technical, hands-on specialty which is fast improving. This orthopaedic programme explores the full spectrum of orthopaedic medicine, and while it’s definitely suitable for orthopaedic surgeons, it covers more than just orthopaedic surgery. Even if you’re not a surgeon, there are still clinical examination interventions, injections, manipulations, treatment and exercises which make this a hands-on specialty.

It’s so engaging and you’re never bored, you always have something to do. In orthopaedics, every patient is different; we treat patients from head to toe so there’s a lot of variety, and you get to work within a multidisciplinary team, engaging with and learning from a number of specialities.

Working in orthopaedics, you have the opportunity to make a real difference to your patients’ quality of life, without the pressure of certain other specialties which are more life critical. As a specialty, it offers the pleasure and reward of making people better without having the stress of worrying about saving their lives.”

How has your career journey influenced your approach to teaching and developing this programme?

"Throughout my own career, I was dissatisfied with orthopaedic education in general. Typically there’s a lot of focus on advanced level education in orthopaedics, meaning no one wants to go back to basics, and this has meant training and education can be limited. There are cases where practitioners know everything about certain aspects of the specialty but they’re missing out on the basic knowledge of other aspects, which makes them unsafe.

Sometimes the multidisciplinary team can be disjointed, with broken communication between surgeons, physiotherapists and nurses for example. By addressing this gap in the market and covering basic orthopaedic education, this will make an impact in bringing the whole multidisciplinary team (MDT) together, ensuring that each member of the whole MDT are aware of the different roles and responsibilities the rest of the team holds.”

What excites you most about leading on this new programme?

“Having been involved from the inception of these orthopaedic courses, I’ve been in a good position to bring in my experiences from other programmes. I’ve completed a Master’s in Orthopaedics myself in the UK so I’ve got lots of exposure to education in this area, and what excites me is being able to deliver something different from what’s currently available in this field. We offer a case-based approach, rich in discussion on patient scenarios and situations, where we cover conditions that clinicians may see every day.”

How does the programme support students in progressing into advanced clinical academic or leadership roles?

“This course definitely offers progression, for a wide range of healthcare professionals.
Nurses who are ambitious and may have become very experienced in their role require advanced level 7 qualifications such as this to progress up the banding ladder and see subsequent increases on the pay scale. Often, nurses also want to specialise in musculoskeletal medicine, or perhaps become a nurse practitioner in a minor injury unit treating orthopaedics, and this programme will be perfect for them to demonstrate their competency in this field and apply for specialised roles.

The same applies to physiotherapists - there are general physiotherapists who may wish to become musculoskeletal physiotherapists, who need to demonstrate their competencies and specialist interest in this area, which completion of this programme will support.

For doctors, there are GPs who like doing joint manipulations, orthopaedic treatments, interventions, and completing a diploma in orthopaedics qualifies them to pursue these interests and specialise in orthopaedics. Resident doctors in the early stages of their career can use this qualification to demonstrate their commitment to the specialty to allow them to progress - this can help them to stand out amongst a competitive applicant pool to get ahead in the industry.”

How do you see the field of orthopaedics evolving, and how does this programme prepare students for future advancements?

“Orthopaedics is one of the fastest evolving specialties; every day there is something new in orthopaedics - new devices, new instruments, new advances in treatments. We have the advantage in the UK of being the leader in the orthopaedic specialty. We have exposure to all of the advancements in terms of orthopaedic inventions and interventions, many of which started from here. We’re in a really good position to deliver a world-class programme, being connected to big names, development, studies and big research centres in orthopaedic medicine.”

What advice would you give to prospective students considering this programme?

“Make the best of it! Get engaged in every part of this programme, it’s definitely worth it. It’s a fully accredited degree programme from a UK based university - wherever you are based, worldwide, this will have an impact on your career.”

Ready to refine your musculoskeletal knowledge with an innovative case-based approach that transcends existing options in orthotic education? Apply now to join our first ever intake of our new Orthopaedic Diploma or MSc.

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