Robert Jones Medal · 2026 Winner

The Robert Jones Medaland Association Prize

In 2026 the British Orthopaedic Association awarded Professor Paul Y. F. Lee the Robert Jones Medal and Association Prize, its essay prize named after the surgeon who helped found British orthopaedics.

Read the prize-winning essay View the prize on BOA

Professor Paul Lee, Robert Jones Medal winner 2026

Who he was

Sir Robert Jones

Sir Robert Jones (1857 to 1933) trained in Liverpool under his uncle, Hugh Owen Thomas, and gained his surgical fellowship in 1889. From 1888 he organised medical care for the 20,000 workers building the Manchester Ship Canal, personally treating around 3,000 cases and performing around 300 operations himself, in what is described as the first comprehensive accident service in the world.

On 28 November 1917, Jones was among fifteen surgeons who met for dinner at the Café Royal in London and resolved to form the British Orthopaedic Association. The Association’s inaugural meeting followed on 2 February 1918 at Queen Mary’s Convalescent Auxiliary Hospital in Roehampton, where Jones served as vice-chairman. He later became the first president of the International Society of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Jones was knighted in 1917 for his services to military orthopaedics. During the First World War he served as Inspector of Military Orthopaedics, overseeing around 30,000 beds and reaching the rank of major general. His advocacy for the Thomas splint in treating fractured femurs is credited with a dramatic reduction in mortality from that injury. The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, established in 1900, took his name after his death in 1933.

The prize

What the Robert Jones Medal and Association Prize is

The Robert Jones Gold Medal and Association Prize was inaugurated by the British Orthopaedic Association in 1924, in memory of Sir Robert Jones. The BOA describes it as a prize of £500 and a gold medal, awarded through an annual essay competition on an orthopaedic topic of the writer’s choosing, with entries limited to 3,000 words excluding references.

Entry is open to BOA members. Essays are submitted anonymously, and the award is made by the BOA President with advice from selected assessors. The BOA is explicit that “no award will be made unless a sufficient standard is achieved,” and that exceptionally more than one prize may be given in an outstanding year. Winners are presented at the BOA Congress in September.

The British Orthopaedic Association itself was founded in 1918 and today has over 5,000 members, most based in the UK and Ireland. The Robert Jones Medal remains one of its flagship individual honours.

The 2026 award

Recovery in the Age of Intelligence

British Orthopaedic Association · 2026

Professor Lee’s prize-winning essay, “Recovery in the Age of Intelligence: Why Humility May Be the Surgeon’s Most Powerful Tool,” argues that as AI-driven imaging, predictive analytics and continuous recovery tracking reshape orthopaedic practice, clinical judgement needs humility alongside it, not in place of it. It draws a direct line to Sir Robert Jones, who installed one of the first radiography machines in his own Liverpool clinic within months of the discovery of X-rays, “not as a novelty, but as a clinical necessity, an early recognition that better vision reshapes better judgement.”

The essay warns that a surgeon who over-trusts a model, ignores context, or fails to question outputs that do not fit the patient can cause harm, and that “a trainee sees moments; a consultant sees consequences.” It argues recovery stays “emotional, relational, fallible and beautifully unpredictable” in ways no algorithm can model, so honest, humble communication with patients matters more, not less, as they arrive with more information of their own, some of it accurate and some of it not.

It closes on the line now quoted across the site:

“Humility keeps patients safe. Humility keeps our profession human. Humility turns intelligence into wisdom.”

Reporting on the award, Professor Lee added: “Modern surgery is increasingly shaped not only by technological advancement but also by the surgeon’s ability to listen, reflect and adapt.”

Read the prize-winning essay

Sources and verification

Read the primary sources

British Orthopaedic Association: Robert Jones Medal and Association Prize, the BOA’s own prize page.
British Orthopaedic Association: History of the BOA, covering the founding of the Association and the medal.
LincsOnline: Lincolnshire surgeon receives one of most respected awards, local news coverage of Professor Lee’s win.
Sir Robert Jones, 1st Baronet, a fuller biography.

Continue

Awards, recognition and the person behind them

Awards and recognitionThe full record of independent honours, prizes and bestseller recognitions.About Professor LeeBackground, philosophy and the clinical framework behind the work.