Professor Mark McAlindon graduated from Nottingham in 1987, where he returned in 1993 to undertake a 2-year British Digestive Foundation (BDF) Research Fellowship after further clinical training in the UK and Melbourne, Australia. He was appointed as a Consultant Gastroenterologist in Sheffield in 1998. He was an elected member of the BSG Small Bowel and Nutrition Committee, a long-standing member of the BSG Endoscopy Committee and remains the National Quality Improvement Lead for Small Bowel Endoscopy. He represented the UK on the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Small Bowel Endoscopy Research Group.

Clinical experience

He has a wealth of clinical experience in general gastroenterology acquired in different UK centres and abroad. He has special interests in Crohn's and colitis, gastroduodenal inflammation and functional disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome and endoscopy. He leads the nutrition service and set up the first and largest capsule endoscopy service in the UK.

Teaching and training

He developed the European Capsule Endoscopy Training Course and co-directed the biannual course from 2005. This course was fundamental in the development of the national capsule endoscopy training and accreditation programme. He has taught on courses in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin and Rome and lectured in the UK as well as other European centres, India and China. 

Research

His BDF fellowship was spent investigating molecular mechanisms of inflammatory bowel disease. He introduced laboratory techniques learnt in Melbourne to Nottingham, to study potential new therapies to minimise the risk of drug-related stomach inflammation.

Recent focus has been on novel non-invasive endoscopic technologies in gastrointestinal (GI) investigation. This includes the use of capsule endoscopy (swallowable pill cameras) in the small bowel, large bowel (or colon) and upper GI tract.

Current studies include the patient experience of a joystick-controlled robot magnet to examine the stomach using a capsule endoscope and the use of colon capsules as a low risk, minimally invasive, minimal contact method of examining the colon. Professor McAlindon has over 150 research publications in peer-reviewed journals which include several book chapters and national and international guidelines. He also co-edited the Handbook of Capsule Endoscopy (Springer, 2016). He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Sheffield. 

Awards

• Movetis Magic Award: Optimising the Novel Technology of Capsule Endoscopy in the UK 2011
• Health Service Journal Care Integration (Innovation): Small Bowel Endoscopy Service (runner-up) 2012
• Health Service Journal Award (Care Integration: Patient Safety): Community Care for Patients with Gastrostomy Tubes 2012
• Medipex Innovation Award for Secondary Care: Capsule endoscopy, a remote tool to investigate the whole GI tract 2014
• British Medical Journal (BMJ) Gastroenterology Team of the Year (runner-up): Gastroenterology Without Walls 2014
• Medipex Telemedicine and Health award: Web-based Capsule Endoscopy Training for the Croatian Institute of Telemedicine 2015
• BMJ Gastroenterology Team of the Year (runner-up): Developing a small bowel endoscopy service 2016
• BMJ Patient Information Award (runner-up): Enteral Feeding Tubes 2018
• BMA Dawkins and Strutt award: Patient Experience of Conventional and Robot-Magnet Controlled upper GI Endoscopy 2019

Media

• Full on Food: Christmas episode (Stefan Gates, BBC2 2003)
• Don’t do this at home (BBC3 Pilot, 2003)
• Bingers (BBC2, 2004)
• Death by Excess: Elvis (Sky TV, 2004)
• Invasion of the body scratchers (Sky TV, 2005)
• The Truth about Food (Fiona Bruce, BBC2, 2006)
• Guts: the mysterious world of the human stomach (Michael Moseley, BBC4, 2012)
• The Great British Germ Hunt (Channel 4, 2018)

• Acid reflux
• Dyspepsia
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Endoscopy
• Capsule endoscopy
• Nutrition

• British Medical Association
• British Society of Gastroenterology
• British Society of Gastroenterology Endoscopy
• Chair of the UK Capsule Endoscopy Users Group
• Co-director of European Capsule Endoscopy Training Course