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Paul Nolan trained at the Queen's University of Belfast Medical School, graduating in 1987. After general surgical training he gained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1990.

He then spent eighteen months in full-time research studying bone grafting and bone biology, gaining his Doctorate of Medicine (MD) in 1992. His work was extensively funded by the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council and the British Orthopaedic Association Wishbone Trust. He published widely in the British Medical Journal, The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Injury, Calcified Tissue International and numerous other scientific journals. He presented his work in Europe and North America, to both the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the American Orthopaedic Association.

He then spent four years in general orthopaedic training in Belfast completing the Specialist Fellowship Examination in Trauma and Orthopaedics (FRCS Tr & Orth) winning the Arthur Edward Burton Memorial Prize for first place in this examination.

In 1996 The British Orthopaedic Association presented him with the Robert Jones Gold Medal, the most prestigious orthopaedic award in the UK, for his work on Tissue Engineering and Self Cell Therapy.

He spent one year in Leeds in 1996 to 1997 doing the joint Neurosurgical / Orthopaedic National Spinal Fellowship with Mr Gerald Townes, Neurosurgeon and Professor Robert Dickson, Consultant Spinal Surgeon.

He was appointed Consultant / Senior Lecturer in Orthopaedics in February 1999 to the Royal Victoria Hospital and Queens University Belfast. During this period he conducted further research into Adult Trauma again publishing extensively. In addition he supervised undergraduate and post-graduate medical training.

He carried out a further fellowship in Spinal and General Adult Trauma in Sunnybrook Level 1 Trauma Centre in Toronto from 1999 to 2000. During this time he gained extensive exposure to Spinal and General Trauma in a busy North American centre, working with the world renowned Drs Marvin Tile and Dr Joe Schatzker – fathers of the AO system of Orthopaedics. Sunnybrook is also the regional centre in Ontario for Spinal Tumours.

On return from Canada he left his university commitments to concentrate on full-time clinical practice.

Having worked in the NHS for nearly thirty years he took Voluntary Early Retirement from his contract with the Belfast Trust. He continues to see and operate on NHS patients through Waiting List Initiative programmes. He was also appointed to the General Medical Councils (GMC) Medical Practitioner Tribunal Service (MPTS).

Paul Nolan is a member of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA), the British Association of Spinal Surgeons (BASS) and the British Spinal Study Group (BSSG) and a Panellist on the General Medical Councils (GMC) Medical Practitioner Tribunal Service (MPTS).

His main areas of interest are functional restoration, pain management and spinal injections, spinal trauma, adult low back conditions including disc degeneration, disc prolapse, spinal stenosis and spondylolisthesis.