MD(Malta) PhD FRCS(Ed) FRCS(Eng)

Associate Professor in Colorectal Surgery and Prehabilitation Medicine

Mr Malcolm West is an Associate Professor in Colorectal Surgery and Prehabilitation Medicine at the University of Southampton, with an honorary appointment as a consultant colorectal and complex cancer surgeon at University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. 

Malcolm trained as an undergraduate at the University of Malta (MD, 2000-2005) before moving to the Northwest and Merseyside for foundation and core surgical training. He completed a NIHR funded doctoral research programme in prehabilitation, exercise physiology, perioperative surgical risk stratification, and mitochondrial energetics with Professors Graham Kemp, Mike Grocott and Sandy Jack (PhD, 2011-2014) leading the first UK prehabilitation study in locally advanced rectal cancer patients undergoing chemoradiotherapy. 

During his PhD Malcolm was the Clinical Lead for the Perioperative Cardio-Pulmonary Exercise Testing (CPET) service at University Hospitals Aintree. He was then appointed as an academic clinical fellow in Wessex (NIHR ACF, 2014-2016) and subsequently a clinical lecturer (NIHR ACL, 2016-2020). He completed specialist training in surgery in August 2020.

Malcolm is a senior investigator for the Fit-4-Surgery Consortium. He works on several work streams, all aimed at improving perioperative and long-term outcomes in patients undergoing major surgery. He is achieving this by reducing the variability around the perioperative period utilising objective risk stratification and tailored multimodal prehabilitation interventions. His research interests include interrogating the pathophysiological mechanisms of changing fitness, nutrition, body composition, frailty and mitochondrial function with cancer therapies and the implementation of prehabilitation interventions to rescue and improve metabolic health, physiological resilience, and cancer outcomes.

Malcolm has published extensively with significant high impact papers published in prehabilitation and perioperative medicine. Malcolm was awarded the British Journal of Surgery, John Farndon Prize in 2015 and again in 2017 for his research in predicting surgical outcomes using CardioPulmonary Exercise Testing. 

Malcolm is a member of the steering committee for WesFit – The Wessex Fit-4-Cancer Surgery (wesfit.org.uk) and SafeFit (safefit.nhs.uk) trials. He is the chief investigator for the FrOGS (Frailty and Sarcopenia Outcomes in Emergency General Surgery) study, a NIHR funded, trainee-led and delivered observational study interrogating the effect of CT measured body composition and frailty on mortality in patients admitted with an acute surgical pathology. Malcolm is a NIHR GlobalSurg core member with an interest in global surgery and cancer outcomes in low to middle income countries. 

Malcolm was awarded the Royal College of Surgeons, England, Minimally Invasive and Maximally Invasive (MIMICC) fellowship in Complex and Robotic colorectal cancer surgery at St. Mark’s Hospital, London (2020-2021). He is currently the Association of Surgeons Great Britain and Ireland Moynihan Travelling Fellow for 2021. 

Malcolm has been recently appointed as the Associate Sub-Speciality Lead for Surgery at the Cancer Research Network, Wessex. Malcolm also serves as a regional advisor and selection committee member of the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit programme. 

Qualifications

• MD, University of Malta, 2005
• MRCS, Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, 2009
• FRCS, Royal College of Surgeons, England, 2019
• FRCS, Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, 2019

Current Appointments held

• NIHR Research for Patient Benefit, Southeast and Central, Selection Committee Member (2022-to date)
• MMedSc Deputy Module Lead for Research (2022 – to date)
• Executive Board Member Fit-4-Surgery Collaborative (2014 – to date)
• Associated Sub-Speciality Lead for Surgery – CRN, Wessex (2021- to date)