PROFILE
Professor Cathy Speed is a Consultant in Rheumatology, Sport and Exercise Medicine and has an international reputation in her chosen fields.
Background
Professor Cathy Speed BMedSci BMBS MA Dip Sports Med PhD FRCP FFSEM (I) (UK) SFHEA.
Prof Speed is a Consultant in Rheumatology, Sport and Exercise Medicine and is Professor of Sports Medicine & Human Performance at Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK. She is Lead Physician at the Fortius Clinic, London and is Clinical Director of the Centre for Human Performance, Cambridge.
She trained at Nottingham, Newcastle, Durham and Cambridge and has completed fellowships in the USA and Budapest.
Professor Speed has a very active role in teaching, research and education in the fields of Human Performance, Sport & Exercise Medicine and Rheumatology. She has been Senior Research Associate and Isaac Newton Teaching Fellow in the Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK, and is one of very few clinicians to hold this senior award in education. She has been an Appraiser and an Examiner for the Faculty of Sport & Exercise Medicine, UK.
Professor Speed has a committed ethos of delivering the highest quality healthcare to people of all levels of fitness and ability and she applies a holistic philosophy in the management of all of her patients, young and old. Her clinical practice blends both specialties of Rheumatology and Sport & Exercise Medicine with her expertise in Human Performance Sciences in the delivery of care.
She has a particular clinical expertise in the diagnosis and management of complex musculoskeletal injuries, arthritis, recalcitrant tendinopathies in sport, in bone health in young athletes and the use of exercise in chronic diseases.
Her academic interests include digital health technologies and translational digital support in the health and wellbeing space. Professor Speed is Clinical Lead for the Consumer Health Research Team and Lead for Human Performance Sciences at Google. She is active in teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level and has published widely.
Holistic musculoskeletal care for all
Professor Speed has a particular expertise in musculoskeletal injuries, arthritis, rehabilitation and exercise as medicine for health and chronic disease.
A focused area of Professor Speed’s work is the diagnosis and management of complex musculoskeletal injuries and pain syndromes. Many of her patients have significant medical issues that affect their daily function and quality of life. This includes patients who have not responded as expected to other interventions, such as medication injections and surgery for their condition. Such patients frequently require further diagnostic approaches, and advanced therapies to address their complaints. Professor Speed is dedicated to working with these patients to achieving positive results.
Working with Athletes
Professor Speed has considerable experience in working with elite athletes to help them optimise their fitness and ability.
She acted as Chief Medical Officer, GB Badminton for 20 years, was Senior Physician at the English Institute of Sport (2002 -2017) and Chief Medical officer to Middlesex County Cricket and the Academy at the Lords Ground, London, UK (2008-2016). She has accompanied elite sports teams across the world to major sporting events.
Roles have also included Physician at a number of Olympic and Commonwealth Games and Chief Medical Officer to Team GB Holding Camp for the Beijing Olympic Games.
Advisory, Research and Teaching
Professor Speed is very active in education and research. She writes, lectures and teaches at both national and international level. She was the Isaac Newton Teaching Fellow at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge 2001-2005.
She also is very active in the digital health space, acting as an advisor to digital health technology companies, and is a Consultant Advisor in Health & Human Performance to Google.
She has written an award-winning textbook on Soft Tissue Rheumatology and was co-author of The Oxford Textbook of Sports Injuries. Her most recent book, High Performance Life, discusses a range of areas that apply to Human Performance in the day to day lives of us all.
Professor Speed’s publications may be found here.
