Philip Ahrens qualified from Charing Cross and Westminster medical school in 1992. His postgraduate orthopaedic training was in London, and undertook a fellowship in shoulder surgery in Nice, France.

He was appointed Consultant to the Royal Free Hospital Hampstead in 2003 and practices specialist shoulder and elbow surgery on the NHS, the Shoulder Unit at the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth and The Wellington Hospital. His specialist interests are in shoulder and elbow arthroscopy, sports injury and joint replacement.

He is active in both research and training, having been awarded the British Elbow and Shoulder Society’s European travelling fellowship in 2004, and is the lead investigator in multicentre clinical trials, and other research. He has published, amongst other conditions, on shoulder instability, biceps pathology, clavicle fractures, elbow arthritis and shoulder arthritis. He has contributed to textbooks of orthopaedic surgery and reviews scientific articles for several international medical journals,

He is a member of the British Orthopaedic Association, The British Elbow and Shoulder Society, and is a founder member of the Watanabe Club, a society dedicated to the advancement, and teaching, of arthroscopic shoulder surgery. He was Consultant Shoulder and Elbow Surgeon to the London 2012 Olympic Games. He is an Honorary Consultant to St Luke’s Healthcare for the clergy, and St John’s Hospice. He has served as Orthopaedic departmental Clinical Lead at The Royal Free Hospital and is currently research lead, advisor to the National Institute of Health Research and serves on the Research Committee of the British Elbow and Shoulder Society.