Kim Mason Kim Mason, an Audit and Research Radiographer for Mid Yorkshire Teaching Hospitals Trust, talks about their role as well as the value of radiographer engagement in research activities and how to get involved. In December, 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen would x-ray the hand of Anna Bertha Ludwig, his wife, using a photographic plate. The new discovery lit a fire in the scientific community, and was so sensational that in the following year over 1,000 articles would be published on the topic of X-rays. Over the next 130 years, medical imaging has undergone many varied evolutions to become a cor ..read more

In the third blog of her series on AI and the radiographer, Shamie Kumar explores the impact on the radiographer when AI is integrated within an imaging modality. In previous BIR blog posts, I have explored how AI is integrated into PACS with the AI outputs seen on radiology systems, and whether non-reporting radiographers could learn and benefit from AI. The question to explore in this blog is when AI is integrated within an imaging modality itself and how that may impact a radiographer. AI embedded into a portable digital X-ray machine Radiographic images are acquired in multiple modalities ..read more

Shamie Kumar describes how AI fits into a radiology clinical workflow and her perspective on how a clinical radiographer could use this to learn from and enhance their skills. AI in radiology and workflow We all know that AI is already here, actively being implemented and used in many trusts in seeing its real world value supporting radiology departments to solve current challenges.  Often this is focused on benefits to radiologist, clinicians, reporting radiographers, patients, and cost savings, but what about clinical non-reporting radiographers undertaking the X-ray or scans – can AI ..read more

Shamie Kumar We are all familiar with the concept of artificial intelligence in radiology and its application that is expanding rapidly. But how will AI in the workplace affect the radiographer and how does it differ from the red dot system radiographers are so familiar with? Shamie Kumar describes her perspective on how radiography has evolved over time, the impact radiographers can have in detecting abnormal X-rays and reflects how she views fast approaching AI in advancing current skills. The Red Dot System Often one of the first courses a newly qualified radiographer attends is the red dot ..read more

Steve Holloway Steve Holloway, from Signify Research explores the daunting challenge of navigating the road to Enterprise Imaging. Cloud technology is transforming how we live and work today. For healthcare providers undergoing long-term digitalisation, the potential of cloud technology resonates, yet the complexities of adoption are daunting and difficult to navigate. Nowhere is this more evident in healthcare than imaging informatics. A front-runner of healthcare digital innovation, the imaging sector has a complex legacy of on-premise, siloed, best-of-breed applications that interact with a ..read more

Dr Gareth Davies describes the massive impact the COVID 19 pandemic had on elective cross-sectional reporting, reducing output to almost zero. Here he reflects on how the drive for innovation and the motivation to think differently led to a better teleradiology service for both patients and staff. Dr Gareth Davies The pandemic will certainly define us as an organisation. A period of uncertainty, business survival, the protection of our staff and their livelihoods and a readiness to provide a clinical service our patients rely on. Let’s go back to the 1 January 2020. It was a time when the UK’s ..read more

One of the first doctors to use radiology to diagnose diseases of the nervous system, Artur Schüller began his first systematic survey of the skull just a few years after X-rays were first discovered. Here, Andrew Schuller, a distant cousin, describes his extraordinary academic and personal journey which led to his recognition as the “Father of Neuroradiology”. Artur Schüller (hereafter Arthur Schuller) was born in the Moravian city of Brunn (now Brno in the Czech Republic) in 1874. Most of the Schullers in Brunn were involved in the textile industry but Arthur’s father, Jonas, was an ENT spe ..read more

Dr Ben George Over the last 18 months, GenesisCare has treated more than 170 patients on the UK’s first ViewRay MRIdian MR-linac and adopted SMART planning as a new way of working. Here, Ben George explains why this latest hypofractionated technique has proven to be one of the success stories of the COVID-19 era. Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) is growing in importance in the curative cancer pathway. Increasingly, it offers patients the opportunity to enjoy relatively long periods of disease control where previously they would have been considered for palliative treatments. Duri ..read more

Angela Young explains how the process of making a podcast helped not only others with a diagnosed brain tumour but gave comfort and support to herself as she embarked on a course of radiotherapy. A brain tumour diagnosis, like all major events, can set in place a chain of emotions, among them anger, fear and denial. It can also make you adjust your priorities in life. I went through all this in 2015 when I discovered I had a Grade 1 benign posterior fossa meningioma. A resection at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge was very successful, leaving only a 3mm residuum. I had been having regular ..read more

Jane Rendall examines what is needed to make large scale NHS imaging programmes work. Jane Rendall Region-wide NHS procurements for diagnostic imaging are becoming increasingly ambitious in their efforts to support faster diagnoses and better care for millions of patients. They are a means to reduce variation, to enhance equity, to change how healthcare professionals access, analyse and report, and they can facilitate new ways of working collaboratively across large geographies. But what is the key to making these multi-trust projects successful and what lessons can be shared? I’m fo ..read more