Professor Peter Brennan is a NHS Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon in Portsmouth, specialising in head and neck oncology with a personal chair for his research and education achievements with over 600 publications to date. He is a committed trainer and educator, collaborating across specialties and disciplines. Peter has been Honorary British Journal of Oral and maxillofacial surgery (BJOMS) Editor (2009-14), British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (BAOMS) President in 2016, Chairman of the English College Court of Examiners (2012-14) and Intercollegiate Committee Chair for MRCS and DOHNS (2014-17) for the four Surgical Colleges. He has recently led a major revision of the MRCS examination. He currently supervises important MRCS predictive validity and differential attainment research for the Colleges and has published widely on the MRCS examination. He has edited 5 specialty textbooks including the 2 volume Maxillofacial Surgery (3rd Edition), Operative OMFS, and the Oxford Handbook. He is Lead Editor of the new Gray’s Surgical Anatomy textbook which has received widespread acclaim around the world. The title has been so popular that it required reprinting within 2 months of publication – unprecedented for a medical textbook.

Peter is interested in human factors (HF) and patient safety, establishing unique collaborations with airline pilots, National Air Traffic Services (NATS) and the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team (Red Arrows). His work improves practice across surgical and medical specialties and includes reducing hierarchy, enhancing team working and raising awareness of many personal factors to reduce medical error. In 2019, he was awarded a PhD entitled ‘Applying HF to Improve Patient Safety.’ Peter was instrumental in securing funding for the first Intercollegiate Research Fellow, Duncan Scrimgeour. He is one of the co-supervisors on Duncan’s doctoral programme of research, which examines the predictive validity of MRCS in surgical training and further assessment.

He promotes equality, women in surgery, trainees and SAS grades at every opportunity and was elected in April 2020 to the Royal College of Surgeons of England Council by the general voting route.

He is also serving British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (BAOMS) again as chair of council , supporting the Presidents and facilitating direction and strategy for the specialty.