
Committee Member

Professor Peter Brennan


Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust
Professor Peter Brennan is a Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon in Portsmouth, specialising in head and neck oncology with a personal chair for his research and education achievements, He has over 830 publications, with 80+ on patient safety and human factors. He is a committed trainer and educator. Peter won the Association of Surgeons in Training (ASiT) 2022 Silver Scalpel Award – the most prestigious accolade across all UK surgical specialties for training excellence.
He has edited 10 specialty surgery textbooks and is Lead Editor of Gray’s Surgical Anatomy which receives worldwide acclaim. The book begins with a chapter on minimising error in the operating theatre.
Peter is interested in human factors (HF) and patient safety, and has established unique collaborations with HF experts, airline pilots, National Air Traffic Services (NATS) and the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team (Red Arrows). His work improves practice across surgical and medical specialties and includes reducing authority gradients, enhancing team working and raising awareness of many personal factors to reduce medical error. In 2019, he was awarded a PhD entitled ‘Applying HF to Improve Patient Safety.’ He works with the Royal Colleges, GMC, specialty associations and others to help improve patient safety and better teamworking. He promotes equality, diversity and training at every opportunity.
Dedicated to advancing the understanding and application of human factors in surgery, anaesthesia and peri-operative medicine.