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Imaging Researchers

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Published: 08 November 2021

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This International Day of Radiology, the NIHR is inviting you to join us in celebrating breadth and diversity that a career in imaging research can bring.

We have been showcasing radiologists, radiographers, physicists, and all kinds of imaging scientists, telling their research story and hearing how the NIHR has helped them use and develop imaging for the benefit of patients everywhere.

You can meet these amazing people below and join in by sharing your own imaging research story on social media using the hashtag #ImagingResearcher

Mark Little- Consultant Interventional Radiology

Professor Mark Little is currently consultant interventional radiologist, and radiology research lead at Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, Reading.  He has established an embolotherapy research group in collaboration with the University of Reading. He is leading the first European study investigating GAE in the treatment of knee OA, and is UK CI for PROstate, an international study investigating long term outcomes of PAE. He was awarded the NIHR research rising star award 2018. 

Having completed the NIHR ACF in clinical radiology, he is CI for a number of investigator initiated studies that are on the NIHR portfolio. In addition, he oversees numerous NIHR portfolio studies in his role as radiology research lead. The NIHR has provided him with education, guidance and access to individuals who provide research governance for his studies.

Karen Welsh- Lead MRI Research Radiographer

Karen Welsh is the Lead research MRI radiographer at GSTT supporting cancer and general imaging.

My job involves helping to plan and facilitate research specific MRI scans. Studies can involve creating AI applications to read MRIs scans, or new techniques in MRI Radiotherapy planning. I love the variety of MRI research we perform, and knowing this work will directly help patients now and in the future.

Joshua Kaggie-MRI researcher

Dr Joshua Kaggie has been an MRI physicist in Cambridge, UK since 2015. Originally funded by GlaxoSmithKline and the Royal Society, Dr Kaggie’s funding has also been funded by the EU 2020 for stem cell tracking in osteoarthritis using MRI and photoacoustic imaging (StarSTEM), and by the NIHR. Dr Kaggie has over 40 papers, which range from cancer and osteoarthritis imaging, physics simulations, machine learning, and radiofrequency methods. Most recently, Dr Kaggie is a co-author on a Nature Medicine paper on machine learning x-ray images of COVID patients -- which involved 20 international academic and industrial sites.

Susan Shelmerdine- Academic Paediatric Radiology Consultant

Susan Shelmerdine is a consultant paediatric academic radiologist working at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. She is currently a post-doctoral NIHR Advanced Fellow researching how artificial intelligence can be used in the diagnosis of paediatric trauma. She is passionate about improving patient care and encouraging research interests amongst junior doctors and medical students.

Ken Poole- University reader in metabolic bone disease

Ken Poole is an academic rheumatologist at the University of Cambridge, applying novel imaging techniques to investigate human bone diseases. With Graham Treece and Andrew Gee from the University Engineering department he pioneered a way of assessing the 3D structure of bone structure in life called Cortical Bone Mapping (CBM), based on clinical Computed Tomography (CT).

Dr Angela Darekar- Chair of the NIHR Imaging Research Delivery workstream

Angela is the Lead for MRI Physics, within the Department of Medical Physics at University Hospital Southampton (UHS). She is also Chair of the NIHR Imaging Research Delivery workstream and a member of the NIHR Imaging Group steering committee. She is passionate about facilitating and encouraging the use and translation of advanced MRI techniques within the clinical research setting, working closely with clinical colleagues and using her expertise in MRI physics to successfully enable this.

Imaging is an essential clinical research tool, and it can help us do everything from understanding mechanisms of disease, to diagnosing disease at an early stage and helping patients manage their conditions. The NIHR Imaging group want to improve imaging research capacity and develop the multidisciplinary workforce involved in delivery, making it more sustainable and accessible. Ensuring that patients who need imaging as part of a research trial or a project, get it wherever they happen to be.

Dr Carolyn Horst- Radiology Registrar

Carolyn is a Radiology Registrar at Guy's and St Thomas Hospital in South London, and an NIHR academic clinical fellow. Her research focusses on harnessing the potential of the quantitative evaluation of lung cancer imaging at all stages of the lung cancer pathway, from screening through diagnosis and treatment.

Rebekah Girling- Diagnostic Radiographer

Rebekah is a Lead Imaging Research Radiographer at NNUH, funded by the NIHR Clinical Research Network. Over the years she has developed an Imaging Research team to include Research Radiographers from core modalities of CT, MRI, and Plain film X-ray. Together they support and facilitate over 150 clinical research trials on the CRN Portfolio and Commercial studies.

The NIHR has helped my career in leading a team of researchers by allowing AHPs to access the academic research pathway and providing learning, courses and resources to colleagues and myself in consent and good clinical practice.

Professor Amaka Offiah- Academic Paediatric Radiologist

Amaka's research interest relates to imaging the paediatric musculoskeletal system. Her aims are to enhance the quality of life of children with skeletal dysplasias and to protect vulnerable children by improving the ways in which we diagnose child abuse. She previously received NIHR grant funding which led to change in the way vertebral fractures are imaged in children, included in international guidelines.


 

Read more about how we support imaging research and imaging research careers.  You can also find out more about the NIHR Imaging Working group, a team of multidisciplinary professionals that have been brought together to promote and support the interests of anyone undertaking imaging research across the NIHR network.