DrAmy Garner, BMBCh, MA, MRCS, PGDipLATHE

Miss Garner is a Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon at the prestigous Exeter Knee Reconstruction Unit, part of the Royal Devon University Hospitals NHS Trust. She has a sub-specialist interest in knee replacement surgery. During her fellowship at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford, Miss Garner learnt advanced skills in partial, total and major revision knee surgery, including the most complex salvage surgery for infection. Miss Garner has a busy general trauma practice, managing injured adults and children. She has a sub-specialist interest in lower-limb trauma. 

Miss Garner's multi-prize-winning PhD investigated compartmental replacement of the knee: the use two or more partial knee replacements within the same knee to target diseased compartments whilst sparing the anterior cruciate ligament and healthy bone. Miss Garner was supervised by Professor Justin Cobb in the MSk Lab and Dr Richard van Arkel and Professor Andrew Amis from the Biomechanics group, in the department of Mechanical Engineering.

Miss Garner was competitively awarded the prestigious Mid-Career Fellowship from the NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre after moving to Exeter, enabling her to continue her pioneering research. She leads the Knee MObility, Balance and stabILITY (MOBILITY) study, an innovatvie study comparing the functional outcomes of partial and total knee replacement in unprecedented detail. Using the vSimulator, the only system of its kind in the UK, her work aims to reveal which procedure most closely restores natural knee function. The MOBILITY study has the potential to shape global understanding of joint replacement outcomes.

More details of the MOBILITY study can be found here: The knee MOBILITY study

Current Societites:

Miss Garner was elected as a junior memeber to the prestigious and highly competitive European Knee Society by nomination from esteemed colleagues in the field.  She is also a member of the British Association of Surgery of the Knee where she is regularly invited to speak. 

Medical Training: 

Miss Garner undertook her primary medical degree at Oriel College, University of Oxford. where she placed first in the 4th year surgical examinations and was awarded merits in Orthopaedic and Trauma surgery; Emergency Medicine, Paediatrics and the final year essay. 

Surgical Training:

Miss Garner completed Core Surgical Training in Oxford, where she was awarded the 'Core Surgical Trainee of the Year'. She taught Oxford medical student surgical sciences three times per week, including tutorials, lectures, bedside learning and anatomy demonstrating. Student feedback resulted in the award of 'Surgical Tutor of the Year' 2012 and led to a funded scholarship to undertake a Post-Graduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education at the University of Oxford, for which she was awarded a distinction. Miss Garner's higher surgical training was based in London and South East England, as part of the Kent, Surrey and Sussex rotation. She was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (FRCS Tr & Orth), by examination, in November 2022 and gained her Certificate of Completion of Surgical Training (CCT) in December 2022.

Doctoral Research:

Miss Garner's PhD looked to investigate bone and soft-tissue sparing alternatives to total knee replacement in the treatment of arthritis that would otherwise be considered too widespread for a single partial knee replacement. In cadavers, she showed that compartmental arthroplasty preserves near-normal extensor mechanism efficiency and anterior-posterior stability of the knee. On the treadmill, Miss Garner showed that patients who retain their anterior cruciate ligament and healthy compartments of bone display healthier walking characteristics, many of which are lost after total knee replacement. Following compartmental arthroplasty, Miss Garner found that patients were more satisfied and reported a better quality of life compared to matched individuals following a total knee replacement.

Patient and Public Involvement:

Miss Garner organised and led the MSk Lab Patient and Public Involvement group. Under her leadership, quarterly meetings were regularly attended by 20-30 interested members including lively online discussions throughout the Covid-19 lockdowns. In Exeter, Miss Garner is actively involved in PPIE activities regarding her latest research study, MOBILITY

Arthroplasty Multi-Disciplinary Team Meetings:

Miss Garner founded the MSk Lab Arthroplasty Multi-Disciplinary Team weekly meetings. The group includes consultant surgeons, clinical research fellows, senior orthopaedic registrars, physician associates, research scientists, a gait analyst and orthopaedic biomechanical engineers. Upcoming cases are discussed and a consensus of opinion is taken prior to surgery, based on clinical history, imaging, gait analysis and three-dimensional surgical imaging.

Prizes and Awards relating to Doctoral Work:

1. European Knee Society 'Best Scientific Presentation' - Closed Meeting, Berlin, May 2026

2. British Association of Surgery of the Knee ‘Best Free Paper’ Annual Conference £1000. May 2021

3. Sam Simmond’s Regional Meeting Prize For “First place podium presentation”. May 2021 

4. International Society for Technology in Arthroplasty Young Investigator Scholarship, for highly scoring conference abstract. $500. Sept 2019 

5. British Orthopaedic Research Society / Bone & Joint Research ‘2019 New Investigator Award’ for conference abstract. £500. Aug 2019

6. European Knee Society Arthroplasty Conference ‘Best Free Paper’ for Podium Presentation, Valencia, Spain. > 500 submitted abstracts, 80 podium presentations. Prize worth £250. April 2019 

7. British Association of Surgery of the Knee (BASK) Annual Congress ePoster Prize for best podium with ePoster presentation. £500. March 2019

8. Highest Rated Early Career Researcher. IMechE – Engineering the Knee Conference. Dec 2018

Travelling Fellowships

Miss Garner was a 2019 ESSKA/EKA Travelling Fellow. She travelled throughout Europe visiting a number of prestigious institutions to observe and learn advanced soft-tissue knee surgery, arthroplasty and multi-level complex osteotomy techniques

Miss Garner was a 2020 Bone & Joint Research / British Orthopaedic Research Society Travelling Fellow visiting specialist hospitals and universities throughout the East Coast of America, Canada, Phoenix and Denver. Here she spent time with world-leading hip and knee surgeons, scientists and biomechanics engineers.

Grants and Awards

Miss Garner's research has been generously supported by the following organisations:

-        University of Exeter BRC ‘small project grant’ for Quadsense. March 2025                              £ 25,000

-        University of Exeter Biomedical Research Centre Mid-Career Fellowship, Jan 2025               £ 200,000                 

-        ZimmerBiomet Biomechanical Engineering Research Support Grant. Jan 2019,                       £ 130,000

-        Royal College of Surgeons of England and Dunhill Medical Trust. Oct 2018                              £ 256,000

-        Smith & Nephew Clinical Research Grant for gait analysis study. Aug 2018.                              £ 110,000

-        Sir Michael Uren Clinical Research Fellowship. Oct 2017.                                                             £ 160,000