A year of achievement
Since its inception, the Department has been involved with innovation in many fields. We are firmly of the view that for science based NHS departments, such as Medical Physics, multi-disciplinary research and development should be a normal part of the duties of scientific and technical staff if they are to be at the cutting edge of their subject and thereby ensure that they can provide up to date and effective support to a wide range of patient services. The Department is involved in many areas of research and technology transfer of its innovations to the wider NHS.
We operate an active technology transfer programme to ensure that advantages of intellectual property and medical devices developed within the Department are propagated throughout the healthcare field to the benefit of patients and the NHS.
Click on the Innovation link at the side of any page to see our leading edge work.
Our successes
The past year has been an excellent one for the Regional Medical Physics Department in terms of external recognition of its staff.
- NHS Innovations North Awards for Innovative Technologies
- First prize - Bill Allan, who heads the Clinical Measurement Section at Sunderland Royal Hospital, for his development of the Sunderland Air Pressure Meter.
- Second prize - Professor Julian Minns, Bioengineering Section, Newcastle General Hospital for his stick-on Hip Protector.
- Commendation - Laurence Scott, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead was highly commended for his development of an Electronic Portering Database.
- Institute of Physics & Engineering in Medicine
- Manufacturers' Award - Dr Iain Chambers and Andy Clark, Newcastle General Hospital for their pupilometer
- Spiers' Prize - Emma Bowers, Freeman Hospital for her paper "Natural breathing is an efficient protocol for the investigation of baroreflex phase."
- British Institute of Radiology
- Barclay Prize - Dr John Kotre, Head of our Diagnostic Radiology Physics group at Newcastle General Hospital. The prize is awarded for important publications relating to the use of X-rays in hospitals, and the Institute recognised Dr Kotre's contribution over the past 20 years in subjects ranging from CT scanning in planning radiotherapy treatment for patients with cancer, through to image quality and perception of diagnostic X-rays, and imaging disease with electrical currents.
- National Osteoporosis Society
- Hilary Noakes Award - Olwen Parry, University Hospital of North Durham for achieving the highest mark in the National Osteoporosis Society's on-line exam for the National Training Scheme for Bone Densitometry.
- British Nuclear Medicine Society
- Norman Veall Medal - Professor David Williams, Head of our Sunderland Unit, Sunderland Royal Hospital for outstanding contributions to the practice of nuclear medicine in the UK.
- NHS Innovation awards for Innovative Technology
- First prize - Bill Allan and his colleagues went on to take first prize at the 2005 national NHS Innovation awards for Innovative Technology, beating 16 other regional finalists. They received a prize of £4,000 to help further develop their ideas, presented by Health Minister Jane Kennedy.
- Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
- Sternberg Award for Clinical Innovation - This was the third success for the Sunderland Air Pressure Meter, developed by Bill Allan, who heads the Clinical Measurement Section at Sunderland Royal Hospital.
Top of page
