Professor Heidi Siddle

Profile

As a leading clinical academic podiatrist I am the first joint appointed Professor of Musculoskeletal Health and Honorary Consultant Podiatrist in a UK medical school and a Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

I have developed and sustained a highly successful programme of research that has been recognised nationally and internationally in the field of foot and ankle disorders, rheumatology, diabetes and primary care, identifying mechanisms of disease, intervention for patients with long-term conditions and influencing how clinicians deliver care. I am innovatively using a full range of applied health research methods to understand the implementation of prognostic modelling in rheumatology, where previously there has been very little consideration of how it is implemented to directly inform clinical practice.

I am contributing to a major national Government led initiative to increase clinical academics in the NHS who deliver ground-breaking research, particularly from underrepresented backgrounds (e.g. AHPs, healthcare scientists) through targeting major, external fellowship funding for the next generation of clinical academics to build careers. In terms of academic capacity development, as a Research Supervisor I have supported the successful funding of NIHR pre-doctoral, doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships significantly increasing health professional clinical academic activity at the University of Leeds in conjunction with local NHS Trusts. This discipline appropriate success has been formerly recognised in UoA3 in REF 2022; our research environment was given a flawless GPA of 4.0.

Responsibilities

• Head of Clinical Biomechanics and Physical Medicine
• Lead Director of PGR, LIRMM
• REF UoA 3 Lead

Qualifications

• PhD Plantar plate pathology in the painful forefoot of patients with rheumatoid arthritis
• Non-Medical Prescribing MSc Module
• Postgraduate Certificate in Musculoskeletal Ultrasound
• MSc Advancing Clinical Practice
• BSc (Hons) Podiatry

Professional memberships

• Health and Care Professions Council CH13828
• Fellow of the Royal College of Podiatrists in Podiatric Medicine (FCPodMed)
• Past Fellow of Podiatric Medicine of the Royal college of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (FFPM RCPS (Glasg))

Student education

Undergraduate medical rheumatology education

Research groups and institutes

• Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine
• Musculoskeletal disease
• Targets and therapies
• Foot and Ankle Studies in Rheumatology (FASTER)
• Long-term conditions