Clinical expertise backed by a caring approach
In its simplest form, medicolegal work involves medical experts giving the legal profession the benefit of their expertise to ensure the best possible result for claimants in often complex cases.
However, the interaction can often be driven by a desire from the expert involved to improve patient outcomes, not just in a particular case but also to ensure others benefit from the legal process.
Mr Marcus Cumberbatch is an excellent example. As a leading consultant urological surgeon, his expertise in the field of prostate and bladder cancer is second to none but he also has an innate sense of justice which makes him an ideal legal expert.
He said: “I am interested in developing legal interactions with the public in terms of helping them to understand what claims may or may not be successful. Also, I am involved in legal education for clinicians who perhaps don't have a practice established and who would like to get involved.
“I offer pro bono advice for firms and for instructing parties as a way of generating goodwill but also to facilitate the legal process.”
This approach is also linked to his own research. For example, in 2023 he was awarded the Hunterian Professorship by the Royal College of Surgeons of England for his groundbreaking work on how social inequality affects cancer outcomes.
This involved talking to patients living in more socio-economically deprived parts of South Yorkshire where he identified a concerning link between deprivation and bladder cancer. His research found a 10% difference in survival at five years between those living in the least and the most socio-economically deprived areas.
Mr Cumberbatch is a leading consultant urological surgeon specialising in prostate cancer, kidney cancer, prostate biopsy and bladder problems alongside bladder cancer, benign prostate disease and diagnostic treatment.
He privately practises in Sheffield at the Thornbury Hospital and the Spire Claremont Hospital along with The Park Hospital, Nottingham. His NHS base is at Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital, and he is also the Cancer Lead of the Directorate. Outside hospital he is Honorary Lecturer at the University of Sheffield.
Mr Cumberbatch has an impressive educational CV, with an MBBS from University College London and MRCS from the Royal College of Surgeons of England. As part of his medical school training, he attended the Welcome Institute where he won a scholarship to complete a BSc in the History of Medicine.
Further educational achievements include foundation training in the Nottingham Deanery, the Academic Clinical Fellowship and a PhD in Cancer Biology for which he secured more than £250,000 from the prestigious Welcome Trust to support a PhD in cancer biology - a feat rarely achieved by a surgeon.
He was also awarded an Academic Clinical Lectureship by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and in 2019 was granted the Ellison-Cliffe Foundation Award by the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) where he learnt about robot-assisted surgery and novel cancer diagnostics in Melbourne, Australia.
Mr Cumberbatch is highly respected among his peers and has presented at various international conferences in countries including Japan, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Australia and the Netherlands. He was the former principal investigator on a number of NIHR portfolio clinical trials, examining the use of robotics in minimally invasive surgery, patient outcome meetings and cancer screening. His clinical research has featured in a selection of peer-reviewed journals, and he has an international reputation for his cancer epidemiology knowledge.
Mr Cumberbatch is a member of various professional organisations, including the European Association of Urology (EAU) and he is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
In 2021, Mr Cumberbatch published an international multicentre series showing that robotic surgery can be used even in high-risk situations where kidney function is poor or only one kidney is present. These patients previously may have been facing open surgery or lifelong dialysis, but with robotic techniques can now be offered a keyhole operation to remove the cancer with less complications, faster recovery, and preserved kidney function.
Mr Cumberbatch added: “My recognised fields have been to do with cancer screening and cancer epidemiology focusing on end-to-end cancer specialisms within diagnostics, delivery and optimising outcomes. I also specialise in minimally invasive techniques and ways of organising patients into who might be best for what care based on certain markers.”
Mr Cumberbatch has been carrying out medicolegal work for more than two years with much of that time spent working as an expert for TLA. Last year he produced 60 expert reports covering both personal injury and clinical negligence and prides himself on the accuracy and speed of his delivery.
“I offer the full report, the breach of duty causation and condition prognosis, as well as the clinical injury. I deliver on my promise of a short turnaround time - screening is usually within two weeks and full reports usually within a maximum of six weeks.”
Working with TLA means he can deliver his expertise with excellent case support on hand when he needs it. He said: “The TLA team have always been very responsive. Their accessibility to claimant records has always been very user-friendly and they have always negotiated very fair terms. These are the main reasons why I will continue to work with them in the future.”