Prior to Mr Elder's medical degree he was an engineer/scientist which took him from studying rocket combustion at Cambridge University to solving complex cooling issues at the CERN nuclear particle accelerator in Switzerland. Following a stint as a field engineer in Siberia to fund future studies, he undertook his undergraduate medical training at the University of Nottingham qualifying in 2008. Towards the end of medical school he travelled to East Timor to work as a disaster relief doctor and was awarded The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London prize for Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine. He completed his higher surgical training in Edinburgh and surrounding hospitals. During his training he completed a prestigious research fellowship at the world renowned Peter Macallum Cancer Research Centre in Melbourne Australia under Professor Iain Campbell looking at the efficacy of modern breast screening and the genetics of pre-cancerous breast disease. For his time there he was awarded the Ethicon travelling scholarship. This research has been published widely and has been presented around the world. He returned to Australia to complete a clinical fellowship under Professor Bruce Mann at the Royal Women’s Hospital of Melbourne. He undertook research into contrast enhanced mammography during this stay publishing the largest study to date on the topic and presenting the findings at conferences around the world.
In 2022 Mr Elder travelled to Japan to learn cryogenic minimally invasive breast surgery on the Sir James Fraser scholarship awarded by the Royal college of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He is also an invited member of the faculty at the Royal College of Surgeons of Hong Kong, visiting twice a year teaching trainee surgeons critical care.
He is currently a consultant breast surgeon at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh where he is the breast surgery lead for the University of Edinburgh online surgery masters qualification.
In his spare time he enjoys endurance running and has completed the New Zealand Coast to Coast as well as the Marathon Des Sables 6 day race across the Sahara Desert in May 2023 whilst raising money for the local Edinburgh Breast unit cancer charity.