Stephen James Lawrence Roche is married to Marycke and has 4 children. He
was born in Harare, finishing A Levels at St George’s College, Harare, Zimbabwe and attended the University of the University of Cape Town, graduating in 1998 with an MBChB. A completed year of internship in 1989 was followed by 18 months of senior house officer jobs in Emergency Medicine, Paediatrics and Orthopaedics/Trauma at Groote Schuur and Red Cross Hospitals. He wrote his Canadian examinations, LMCC, while doing a 4-year stint in rural Canada, before returning to Groote Schuur Hospital to join the Orthopaedic Rotation in 1996, passing his FCS Orthopaedics (SA) examination in 2000. He remained at Groote Schuur running a trauma firm with commitments to the shoulder and elbow, and sports knee injury firms. He was awarded the first ‘Don Mackenzie’ South African Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship in 2003. He is still working at Groote Schuur hospital and has a limited private practice.

Positions and appointments
Ad Hominem Professor of Orthopaedics University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital Deputy Head of the Division of Orthopaedics Groote Schuur Hospital
Head of Shoulder and Elbow Unit and Adult Reconstruction, Princess Alice Orthopaedic Unit
Co-founder of the Orthopaedics Biomechanics Laboratory established with Professor S Sivarasu at the University of Cape Town.
Co-director of the accredited Orthopaedic Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, established with Professor Dunn and Professor Michael Held
University of Cape Town Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship established in 2010 with Professor Basil Vrettos.
Co- founder on the Sports Orthopaedic service at Groote Schuur Hospital with Professors Michael Held and Jeroen Swart – the first public Sports Injury clinic in South Africa
Editorial Board of Shoulder and Elbow Journal (BESS) and South African Orthopaedic Journal
Reviewer for multiple journals
Member of South African Orthopaedic Association
Member and past Secretary for the South African Shoulder and Elbow Society
Corresponding member of the American Shoulder and Elbow Society
International Board of Shoulder and Elbow Societies – board member

The unit is actively involved research which is multidisciplinary from orthopaedic surgeons, medical bioengineers, sports scientist/physicians and physiotherapists, including international collaborations. He has more than more than 60 peer reviewed publications and 100 local and international presentations, and has been an invited speaker on 5 continents. Several papers have won local and international prizes. The research is not restricted to clinical conditions of shoulder and elbow but also biomechanics of the shoulder and elbow, including shoulder replacements as well as fractures and implant design. The unit is active in injury epidemiology and prevention in sports, as well as teaching and learning in Orthopaedics.