Dr Kirsten Mackay

Dr Kirsten Mackay is a highly distinguished consultant rheumatologist in Devon, with a high level of expertise in osteoporosis, spondyloarthritis and joint injections. She specialises in all aspects of rheumatology, including various forms of rheumatism, joint pain, back pain, osteoporosis, connective tissue diseases, vasculitis and polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). She has a particular interest in early inflammatory arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, as well as biologic therapies, gout and temporal arteritis (Giant Cell Arteritis). 

Dr Mackay earned her medical degree and surgical qualification from Bristol University's Medical School, before going on to undertake her training in general medicine at Southmead and Frenchay Hospitals in Bristol, Northwick Park Hospital in London, and in Queensland, Australia. She then pursued advanced specialisation in rheumatology, training at several prestigious institutions including the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath, the University of Oxford, St. Vincent's Hospital in Dublin, Northwick Park Hospital in London, and Frenchay Hospital in Bristol.

Her research, conducted at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, was funded by an Arthritis Research UK fellowship, and her findings have been published in leading medical journals. She was notably awarded a doctorate in medicine by the University of Bath in recognition of her contributions. She has, to date, published extensively within various peer-reviewed publications and medical journals. She has been the National Institute of Health research (NIHR) national clinical co-lead for musculoskeletal research.

She has extensive experience and thoroughly enjoys medical education for doctors in training, allied health professionals and patients, holding a wide variety of roles, many of them national.