IPEM members can be in the news for a variety of reasons - winning an award, presenting work to a panel of MPs, being honoured for their services to their profession, or being interviewed by the media about some aspect of their work. On this page we feature some of those members who have been in the news for a variety of reasons.
November
The International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM) represents the combined efforts of over 150,000 medical physicists and engineers globally. IUPESM is a Full Member to the International Science Council (ISC).
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, IUPESM has named 40 Inaugural Fellows, including 9 IPEM members. They are amongst the most prominent international leaders of the profession, recognised for their outstanding contribution to the international development of Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine. We congratulate them all and their families:
Prof Alun H. Beddoe Prof Keith Boddy (posthumous) Prof Stephen Keevil Prof John Mallard Prof Peter Smith Prof KY Cheung (Hong Kong) Prof Slavik Tabakov Prof Joe Barbenel Prof Leandro Pecchia
Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine and Worshipful Company of Scientific Makers: 2020 Essay Prize result We are delighted to announce that the winner of the inaugural 2020 prize is James Bezer, a student at Imperial College London.
The prize was open to members of IPEM and WCSIM in the early stages of their careers. The essay was a maximum of 1,000 words and had to be written to be understood by members of the general public. The subject of the inaugural prize was: Innovation and Communication: Scientific Instrumentation Improving Patient Outcomes.
James will receive a prize of £500 and a Gold Medal. His essay will be published in SCOPE, IPEM's quarterly magazine and on the websites of both organisations.
August
Professor Zhanfeng Cui, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Oxford, was awarded a President's Special Award for Pandemic Service from the Royal Academy of Engineering for developing a test to see if person infected with Covid-19 is still infectious.
March
Member Mark Westby, Head of Medical Equipment Services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, gave an interview to the Guardian newspaper about the impact Covid-19 was having on his department.
Fellows Professor Stephen O'Connor, IPEM President, Professor Mark Tooley, Immediate Past President, and Dr George Dempsey, Vice President Engineering, provided expert reaction to the Science Media Centre on work by UCL, UCLH and Formula One in developing Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) breathing devices in response to the Covid-19 crisis.
January
Three IPEM members provided expert reaction to the Science Media Centre on a study looking at low doses of radiation in medical imaging and mutations in cell cultures. Fellow Professor Malcolm Sperrin, Head of Physics at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Fellow Jim Thurston, Head of Radiation Protection and Dosimetry Service at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, and David Dommett, Consultant Clinical Scientist at Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and chair of the Society of Radiological Protection’s Medical Committee, responded to this.
December
Andy Rogers, the Past President of the British Institute of Radiology, was awarded the BIR’s Distinguished Service Medal for his contribution to the activities of the organisation.
Dr Dimitra Darambara, team leader, Multimodality Molecular Imaging in the Department of Physics at the Institute of Cancer Research, the Royal Marsden Hospital, London, was the recipient of the Philips Award from the Institute of Physics for her work in raising the profile of medical physics.
Professor John Crowe, a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Nottingham, was part of the team to be awarded the Colin Campbell Mitchell Award by the Royal Academy of Engineering for developing the world’s first wireless foetal monitor. October
Ahmar Iqbal, an Associate Member and a third year Level 3 Engineering Apprentice with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, won the Health, Medical and Social Care category at the Asian Apprenticeship awards.
September
Gold Medal and Early Career awards were presented to IPEM members who have made outstanding contributions in their field of work at MPEC 2019 in Bristol. The Gold Medal and Early Career awards are for members who have made outstanding contributions in academia, innovation and healthcare, and in recognition of the achievements of early career members. The recipients were: Dr Huda Al-Naemi, Professor Andy Beavis, Professor Panicos Kyriacou, Dr Emmanuel Akinluyi, and Dr Bilal Tahir. Other prizes and awards were also presented at MPEC and you can read more about them here.
IPEM member Haris Shuaib, a Clinical Scientist at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London, became one of 17 digital fellows with Health Education England’s Topol Programme for Digital Fellowships in Healthcare. This aims to support NHS organisations to invest in clinical staff to develop specialist digital skills and to learn about leading digital transformation
Some 11 female IPEM members were admitted to a new leadership programme, the CSOWISE Healthcare Sciencce Leadership Development Programme for NHS England. They made up a third of all those admitted on to the programme. They were:
July
IPEM Fellow Professor David Hawkes, a director at the Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, was awarded the inaugural Peter Mansfield Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics for his contribution to physics.
Dr Viv Cosgrove, Head of Radiotherapy Physics at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, presented further evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Radiotherapy inquiry at the House of Commons.
Dr Heather Williams, Principal Medical Physicist at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, and IPEM Fellow Jim Thurston, Head of Radiation Protection and Dosimetry Service at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, provided expert reaction to the Science Media Centre on a study looking at radioactive iodine treatment for overactive thyroid and risk of cancer.
June
Dr Viv Cosgrove, Head of Radiotherapy Physics at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, presented evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Radiotherapy inquiry at the House of Commons.
April
IPEM Fellow Professor Malcolm Sperrin, Head of Physics at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, appeared on the BBC One programme 'Health: Truth or Scare' to debunk some of the claims about mobile phones giving rise to brain tumours.
Two members were made Honorary Fellows of the Academy for Healthcare Science:
Three members were recognised at the 2019 NHS Healthcare Science Awards:
Professor David Brettle appeared on ITV Calendar at the launch of the Little Linac project at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to talk about the project. The story also featured seven-year-old William, from Huddersfield, who was undergoing radiotherapy treatment. The story also appeared in iNews, Metro and SWNS.
Dr Leandro Pecchia, Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick, had his scientific paper 'Day-to-day variations in sleep quality affect standing balance in healthy adults' featured in Nature.
IPEM Fellow Dr David Gow CBE, the inventor of the i-Limb® prosthetic hand, received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Glasgow in recognition of his world renowned innovations in upper limb prosthetics. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1979 with a BSc (Honours) in Engineering Science. Last year IPEM awarded him the Innovation Gold Medal.
Associate Member David Randall appeared in the November edition of Into The Void Science magazine, talking about realising the medical potential of virtual reality.
October
Joe O'Brien, a Clinical Scientist in nuclear medicine at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, won a Science Council CPD award. September
Five members were announced as winners of two prestigious programmes run by NHS England. Dr Fiammetta Fedele, Dr Geoffrey Heyes and Dr John Thornton were among nine healthcare scientists selected for the Chief Scientific Officer’s (CSO) Knowledge Transfer Partnership Programme. Meanwhile Gail Distefano and Nana Odom were named as two of the four candidates for the CSO WISE Fellowships programme. You can read more about all of them here.
Gold Medal awards were presented to IPEM members who have made outstanding contributions in their field of work at MPEC 2018 at York Racecourse. The Gold Medal awards are for members who have made outstanding contributions in academia, innovation and healthcare, as well as recognition for the achievements of early career members. The winners were: Dr Martin Graves, Dr Colin Martin, Professor Daniel Clark, Dr Kate Ricketts, and Jim Daniel. You can read more about them here.
IPEM President, Professor Mark Tooley, and immediate Past President, Professor David Brettle, both gave media interviews during Members' Day at the MPEC 2018 conference in York. The interviews were about IPEM's charity concert to celebrate the NHS at 70 and to raise funds for the Little Linac project. Mark was interviewed for the mid-morning show on BBC Radio York and David was interviewed by That's TV York for their evening bulletin. The concert also appeared in the York Press.
IPEM Fellow Christopher Walker, head of radiotherapy physics at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, was featured on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle’s website talking about a new pioneering treatment plan which targets multiple tumours at the same time.
IPEM Fellow Professor Wendy Tindale was featured on BBC Look North (Yorkshire), talking about new technologies for remotely monitoring the health of nursing home residents, and providing advice to staff to reduce hospital admissions.
IPEM Fellow Dr Roger Staff, Head of Imaging Physics at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, was presented with the Norman Veall Medal, which is awarded annually by the British Nuclear Medicine Society Council to a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to the science and/or practice of nuclear medicine in the United Kingdom.
Members swept the board at the annual Chief Scientific Officer's Healthcare Science Awards:
IPEM Fellow Professor Malcolm Sperrin commented on the nerve agent attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal, who were found unconscious in Salisbury. Professor Sperrin talked to the BBC and other media outlets about the symptoms of a nerve agent attack.
David Randall, a researcher at the University of Sheffield, was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about the virtual reality colonoscopy he had developed. You can see more on the VR colonoscopy on YouTube™ here.
Professor Paul White, a Fellow of the Institute, became one of five healthcare scientists to be appointed as part of NHS England's Clinical Entreprenuers Programme.
Mark Worrall, a Radiation Protection Adviser at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, won the inaugural BIR/GE Healthcare Radiation Safety Travel Award for his work on the creation of a computational model to accurately estimate the thickness of an attenuator from a single digital radiograph. He will present his work at the International Conference on Radiation Protection in Medicine: Achieving Change in Practice next month in Vienna, organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Nigel Deshpande, a Clinical Scientist at Philips Healthcare, spoke to Marianne Elliott, the director of the play Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle, which is showing in London's West End, about scientific theory and his interview is featured in the show's programme.
Gold Medal awards were presented to IPEM members who have made outstanding contributions in their field of work at the MEIBioeng/MPEC conference at Sandown Park. The Gold Medal awards are for members who have made outstanding contributions in academia, innovation and healthcare, as well as recognition for the achievements of early career members. The winners were: Professor David Lurie, Dr Neil Lewis, Dr David Gow, Dr Tracy Underwood and Dr Mohammed Atari. You can read more about them here. Professor Marco Viceconti, Chair of Biomechanics at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield and Executive Director of the Insigneo Institute at the university, was made an Honorary Fellow of IPEM at the MEIBioeng/MPEC conference. Dr Jonathan Ashmore and Dr Cormac McGrath were presented with the Roy Ellis Patient Benefit award at the MEIBioeng/MPEC conference for the interactive app they have developed. This prepares children for MRI scans by creating a 360° virtual reality video of the entire MRI journey, from arriving at the department to undergoing the scan itself. The winner of the Spiers' award for outreach, also made at the conference, was Elizabeth Kapasa.
Zoe Clarke, an Assistive Technology Clinical Scientist at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, was one of four recipients of the 2017 Chief Scientific Officer’s Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Fellowship scheme.
Trainee rehabilitation engineer Gary Cleall, employed by King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and who works in the Disablement Service Centre at the Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, Kent, was selected to help support competitors at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London.
Dr Niall MacDougall, Head of Clinical Dosimetry at Barts Health NHS Trust, had his paper “In vivo dosimetry in UK external beam radiotherapy: current and future usage”featured in this year's edition of the Best of BJR.
IPEM Fellow Dr Colin Baker, Dr Jason Cashmore and IPEM’s Honorary Secretary Dr Bal Sanghera, were among the winners of the Chief Scientific Officer's first Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme.
Dr Lorna Tasker, Head of Rehabilitation Engineering at Morriston Hospital in Swansea, was named as one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering for 2017 in the United Kingdom, run by The Daily Telegraph in partnership with the Women’s Engineering Society and key employers in the industry.
IPEM Fellow Professor Tony Fisher, a consultant Clinical Scientist at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the University of Liverpool, was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to medical physics and clinical engineering.
May
Ian Paddick, consultant physicist with Medical Physics Ltd at Cromwell Hospital in London, was elected as President of the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society, becoming the first physicist to be appointed to the role.
Affiliate Member Alexis Dimitriadis, a PhD student at the University of Surrey, was presented with the Young Investigator Award at the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society Congress in Montreux.
Members swept the board at the annual Chief Scientific Officer’s Healthcare Science Awards:
Trainee Clinical Scientist Shaun Warrington, who works in the Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering Department at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, presented his research poster to parliamentarians at the STEM for Britain awards at Portcullis House in Westminster.
Professor Panayiotis Kyriacou, IPEM's Vice President Academic, was elected as the new President of the European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering & Science.
February
Dr Jonathan Ashmore, a MRI physicist at King’s College Hospital in London, developed the My MRI at King’s application to help ease the fear of children – and their parents – who are attending for a scan. He was featured talking about the app on BBC Breakfast News and BBC Newsround.
Jim Thurston, Head of Radiation Protection and Dosimetry at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, was interviewed for the national 'Future of Imaging' campaign, a supplement in the Guardian newspaper.
IPEM member Professor Paul Marsden, Professor of PET Physics and Director of PET Medical Physics at King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas' PET Centre, was awarded the inaugural John Mallard Award by the International Organization for Medical Physics.
Professor Tony Barker, an IPEM Fellow and the pioneer of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the brain, became the first recipient of the International Brain Stimulation Award by publisher Elsevier.
A new set of Gold Medal Awards were presented at MPEC:
Consultant Clinical Scientist Dr Charlotte Kemp, Head of Clinical Measurement at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, was one of four recipients of the first Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Fellowship scheme set up by the Chief Scientific Officer for NHS England.
IPEM Fellow Professor Andy Beavis was awarded the Society of Radiographers Silver Medal for his contribution and services to Radiography, especially with regards to his promotion of multidisciplinary work and in education.
Trainee cardiac physiologist Stephanie Smith and her colleague Stuart Allen, of the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust, won the IPEM award in the Patients as Partners in Science category at the Advancing Healthcare Awards.
The Chief Scientific Officer's Healthcare Scientist of the Year was IPEM Fellow Professor Wendy Tindale OBE, consultant Clinical Scientist and Scientific Director at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. Anthony Higgins, a Clinical Scientist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, won the Rising Star Award for Medical Physics and Engineering at the CSO awards.
Former IPEM President Professor Stephen Smye was awarded the OBE in the New Year's Honours List for services to healthcare research.
WISE Award winners were: Jennifer Walsh-O'Donovan, of NHS Lothian, who won the Hero Award for her work as a Clinical Scientist and rehabilitation bioengineer in the Southeast Mobility and Rehabilitation Technology Centre in Edinburgh, and Stephany Baladas, an assistant clinical technologist apprentice at King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, who won the Girl Award for achievements by a girl under 18 whose passion for science and technology inspires others.
Matthew Dunn, Head of Radiology Physics at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, won a special Public Engagement Award at the Chief Scientific Officer's Healthcare Science Awards for his outreach work.
Michelle Hughes (Macmillan patient information and support radiographer) and Victoria Sykes (team leader radiographer), Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust won the IPEM award in the Patients as Partners in Science category at the Advancing Healthcare Awards.
Former IPEM president Peter Jarritt and IPEM member Farah Hussain are part of a New Scientist article on biomedical engineering.
September As background to a major news story about the parents of a critically ill child seeking proton therapy, IPEM spokesperson, Dr Philip Mayles was interviewed by New Scientist
In the run up to MPEC2014 in Glasgow, the conference was covered by Aunt Minnie's and PRWeb.
IPEM was a major contributor to the evaluation process for a new, single dose radiotherapy treatment for breast cancer. Approval by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) received press coverage, including this article in the Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/25/intrabeam-radiotherapy-single-dose-breast-cancer-surgery. The evaluation report can be found here https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/gid-tag353/resources/breast-cancer-early-intrabeam-radiotherapy-system-appraisal-consultation-document.
IPEM's 'Scientific Safety Advice to Magnetic Resonance Imaging Units that Undertake Human Imaging' is referred to in this American article about MRI safety http://www.auntminnie.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=mri&pag=dis&ItemID=107923.
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers issued a new report: Biomedical engineering: advancing UK healthcare, which was covered by the press, including the Daily Telegraph. You can read IPEM's full response to this report here.
A paper in our journal MEP 'Objective diagnosis of ADHD using IMUs' received online coverage on a number of sites, including Medical Express:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-06-gyroscopes-adhd.html
April A paper in our journal PMB was covered by the website News Medical: "Dartmouth aims to remove barriers for pancreatic cancer photodynamic therapy".
The Radiotherapy Board wrote a letter to the Sunday Times, in response to an article about radiotherapy "Cruel failure of Cameron’s cancer pledge". An edited version on the letter was published on 8 March. The original letter can be read here.
The Driffield Times and Post featured the inclusion of IPEM Fellow Andy Beavis in the Science Council's list of the top 100 practicing scientists in the UK.
IPEM media spokesperson Professor Mark Tooley was interviewed by BBC news about his work monitoring baby sleep behaviour in the new neonatal unit at the Royal United Hospital in Bath. The article featured on BBC News 24, the World Service and BBC online
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26071453
IPEM media spokesperson, Dr David Gow responded to news of the first bionic hand with a sense of touch:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/05/bionic-hand-limb-sense-touch-artificial
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/health/news/article3997105.ece
http://www.independent.ie/world-news/and-finally/man-hails-bionic-hand-breakthrough-29983919.html
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/amputee-with-bionic-hand-dennis-aabo-sorenson-can-feel-objects/story-e6frg8y6-1226819340898
http://www.news24.com/Technology/News/Bionic-hand-can-now-sense-shape-texture-20140205
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/05/italian-researchers-bionic-hand-can-now-sense-shape-and-texture/
http://www.samachar.com/Bionic-hand-helps-amputee-to-sense-shape-texture-ocghM4cefjd.html
http://news.uk.msn.com/man-hails-bionic-hand-breakthrough
http://www.menafn.com/1093766461/Bionic-hand-can-now-sense-shape-texture
January News Wales featured the inclusion of ex-IPEM President Professor Peter Wells in the Science Council's list of the top 100 practicing scientists in the UK.http://www.newswales.co.uk/index.cfm?section=Education&F=1&id=26802
Process and Control Today reported that IPEM fellow, David Gow has been nominated for inclusion in the SEMTA Engineering hall of fame. http://www.pandct.com/media/shownews.asp?ID=39421
IPEM publication "Physicists and Physicians: a History of Medical Physics from the Renaissance to Röntgen" was reviewed by Physics World: "Physicists keen on history will not be disappointed by the depth of research or wealth of fascinating material presented".
IPEM spokesperson Professor Mark Tooley was interviewed by the Daily Mail to explain why some people get electric shocks when they touch other people. His comments appeared in their Good Health section on 10th December.
November IPEM member Sharon Ann Holgate had an article featured in Science Careers on the benefits of becoming a Chartered Scientist.
A paper in our journal PMB "Balloon mis-positioning during prostate cancer treatment could affect success of radiation delivery" was covered by Medical Express .
To mark the International Day of Medical Physics (IDMP) on November 7th, Leila Nichol was interviewed by Radio Cardiff on 2013 about her work as a medical physicist.
IPEM helped Professor Mark Tooley with an article for HSJ on the impact on parents, children and staff of an innovative neonatal intensive care unit at the Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust.
September Professor Stephen Meikle was an invited speaker at ICMP 2013. His talk on "Recent advances in Neurological PET studies of awake, continuously moving subjects" was covered by:
Medical Physics Web - http://medicalphysicsweb.org/cws/article/research/54650
Aunt Minnie's Europe - http://www.auntminnieeurope.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=mol&pag=dis&ItemID=608720&wf=1
John Delos accepted the Martin Black Prize at the International Conference on Medical Physics for his paper in Physiological Measurement, “A new algorithm for detecting central apnea in neonates.” http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2013/algorithms-improve-monitoring-of-apnea-in-premature-babies123.php
July We put forward some of our female members to the Health Service Journal for a special issue they produced on ‘inspirational women’ in health services. See the two resulting articles, one from Elly Castellano and Sue Edyvean and the other from Heather Williams, aka ScienceGrrl (registration may be required to view).
Medical Physics Web covered the Roberts Prize, which is awarded for the best 2012 paper in the IPEM journal PMB. http://medicalphysicsweb.org/cws/article/research/54065
Medical Physics Web covered the apointment of a new editor to IPEM journal Physiological Measurement. http://medicalphysicsweb.org/cws/article/research/53686
May IPEM helped promote a feature on precision radiotherapy at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Department of Medical Physics and Engineering to Al Jazeera programme, the Cure. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/TheCURE
A paper published in the IPEM journal Physiological Measurement, “Changes in the MEG background activity in patients with positive symptoms of schizophrenia: spectral analysis and impact of age," was covered by:
The Australian
Science Daily
The Independent (Ireland)
Europapress
Psychcentral.com
IPEM spokesperson Professor Malcolm Sperrin responded to extraordinary claims in the Guardian that hepatitis C could be reliably detected in patients using a “mechanical divining rod. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/feb/28/hepatitis-claim?CMP=twt_gu
IPEM spokesperson Philip Mayles was interviewed by BBC Radio Solent on the benefits of proton beam therapy.
IPEM spokesperson Jim Thurston provided expert reaction for the Science Media Centre in response to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) report on health risks associated with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) disaster in Japan. http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/radiation/
February IPEM spokesperson Jim Thurston is interviewed regarding the French radiographer convictions.
http://www.auntminnieeurope.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=imc&pag=dis&ItemID=607979
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