He delivered a series of free public lectures on The Heart of the Matter, "to explore [...] the challenging medical, ethical, financial and political issues of our time.

He was appointed Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1978 and Senior Registrar (and academic ‘First Assistant) in Cardiothoracic Surgery the same year.

Concurrent with this post he conducted research into The Metabolic Consequences of Cardio-Pulmonary Bypass and was awarded a Doctorate in Medicine (MD) by Newcastle University in 1983.

He became fascinated by the treatment of congenital heart disease and was appointed Senior Registrar in Paediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London in 1984, training with Professor Marc de Leval and Mr. Jaroslav Stark.

He became involved with Formula 1 by noticing similarities between teams dealing with pitstops and the transfer of patients from theatre to intensive care.

[11] 1973 The Goyder Scholarship for Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University of Newcastle upon Tyne 1982 The Charles Hahn European Young Research Workers Prize Silver Medal (Stockholm) 2008 NHS Platinum Clinical Excellence Award 2011 One of 'Britain's Top 50 Surgeons', The Times, December[12] 2012 JH Gibbon Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society for Extracorporeal Technology (AMSECT)[13] 2012 One of 'Britain's Top Paediatric Doctors', The Times, December[14] 2014 One of NHS's 'Top 50 Innovators', Health Service Journal[15] 2015 The Hunterian Medal from the Royal College of Surgeons of England 2015 The Olaf AF Acral Medal from the Swedish Surgical Society Elliott is married to Lesley, a former hospital and research manager.

[16] Elliott enjoys reading, watching sport, playing tennis, cycling and walking the dog in his spare time.