WHETHER it is working with professional rugby players or treating elbow and shoulder damage sustained away from the sporting arena, surgeon Ro Kulkarni is blazing a trail for his specialty.

The Royal Gwent Hospital-based orthopaedic consultant – also surgeon to and board member at Newport Gwent Dragons – has become the first Wales-based president of the British Elbow and Shoulder Society.

All specialist elbow and shoulder surgeons from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland are members, along with specialist elbow and shoulder physiotherapists, and Mr Kulkarni is also the first president to be based in a district general hospital, as previous presidents have been professors, or from large teaching hospitals.

“It’s a great privilege and very humbling because it is a vote of your peers, and I felt particularly proud to be the first president from Wales,” said Mr Kulkarni, who nine years ago brought 450 members of the society to Wales for the first time for its annual conference, at the Celtic Manor Resort.

“It is also recognition of the excellent work that is being done in the NHS in Wales.”

The society seeks to foster and advance the science and practice of elbow and shoulder care, helps shape national treatment protocols, and encourages greater collaboration between UK and overseas experts.

Mr Kulkarni was listed as one of only four orthopaedic surgeons in the Sunday Times Top 100 UK doctors in 2011.

He is also chairman of a national committee developing best practice guidelines in the treatment of shoulder and elbow conditions.

In 2011 he also organised a sports medicine conference of experts at Rodney Parade in Newport.