Professor David Metcalfe

Professor Metcalfe is the inaugural Kadoorie Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Oxford and a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at the John Radcliffe Hospital. He was formerly a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard Medical School, Clinical Lecturer in Emergency Medicine at Oxford, and was elected Hunterian Professor of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2020. His clinical practice spans the full spectrum of emergency medicine (adults and children) and urgent care.

Professor Metcalfe’s particular clinical interests are around musculoskeletal injury (e.g. fractures), cardiac arrest, and the diagnosis of high-consequence emergency conditions (e.g. aortic dissection, pulmonary embolus, cauda equina syndrome).

Professor Metcalfe’s research aims to improve the early diagnosis of time-critical conditions, optimise clinical pathways, and evaluate interventions used in emergency care. His current studies are around fracture detection on x-ray, treatment of wrist and hip fractures, and diagnosis of cauda equina syndrome.

Professor Metcalfe has taught medical students at Magdalen College in Oxford since 2016 and has previously taught at Warwick, Edinburgh, The Open University, St George’s University of London, and University College London. He has instructed on nationally accredited courses such as Advanced Life Support (ALS), Advanced Paediatric Life Support (APLS), and the European Trauma Course (ETC). He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Professor Metcalfe has over 100 publications in peer reviewed journals, including the BMJ and JAMA. He has also contributed to guidelines published by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and NHS England. He wrote the undergraduate textbook ‘Adult Emergency Medicine at a Glance’ (Wiley Blackwell) with Dr Tom Hughes.

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Professor Metcalfe leads a growing research group in emergency care at Oxford. When acting as the emergency physician in charge, he oversees the clinical work of a team of resident doctors (Senior House Officers and Registrars), Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACPs), and Emergency Nurse Practitioners (ENPs).

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