Speakers
SANDRA ANGLIN
Sandra Anglin is the Deputy Director of Public Health and Commissioning Operations in NHS England, with specific oversight, delivery and assurance responsibilities for the NHS Adult and Young people screening programmes, (NHS Bowel Cancer, Breast, Cervical, Diabetic Eye and Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening Programmes), within a team that has oversight for the delivery of NHS Public Health Section 7a Agreement (Section 7A). Sandra’s cross-cutting duties for all the NHS Screening Programmes include; Improvements in workforce planning and training and education for screening – currently Chair of the NHS Breast Screening Programme Workforce, Education and Training Strategy Group, Oversight for the publication and delivery of the NHS Screening Leaflets – Chair of the Public Information Board, and integration of screening with wider NHS England Diagnostic Improvement Programme.
Sandra originally trained as a biochemist, and has a varied career path, starting with fundamental research, going on to lead clinical trials, research commissioning, and commissioning service delivery. For the latter part of her career has been in a variety of strategic lead positions focused on prevention and public health; leading on policy development at regional and national level, implementation of screening programmes on behalf of DHSC.
Sandra joined NHS England in 2013 and has held a variety of other NHS management positions since then, taking up the post of Deputy Director in 2018.
BUKKY AYOADE
Bukky has a background in pharmacy and has worked for over 35years in various aspects of pharmacy. Majority of her working career has been as a Medical Affairs Consultant within blue chip pharmaceutical companies. Her special interests are lifestyle medicine, and she is passionate about women’s health, specifically the menopause. Bukky is also a certified health coach and has developed a unique coaching programme to help and support midlife women going through the menopause transition.
ISOBEL BARNES
Isobel Barnes is a Senior Statistician in the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford. She completed a PhD in statistics before joining the unit in 2010. Her research interests are in cancer screening, risk factors for cancer in different ethnic groups, as well as cervical and breast cancer epidemiology. Isobel is co-cheif investigator of the AgeX trial and also works on the Million Women Study, a cohort study of women’s health, which includes over 1.3 million women.
JOJO BOAFO
With several years of experience working in the musculoskeletal (MSK) physiotherapy discipline, I am particularly interested in public health promotion and football. I’m currently working within the MSK service in Leeds but also have experience working in stroke rehabilitation and orthopaedics.
CLINTON BOYD
Dr Boyd is a consultant pathologist with an interest in breast and thoracic pathology. He is a founder member and honorary secretary of the Association of Breast Pathology.
JOSIE CHEETHAM
Josie Cheetham is a GP trainee in Gwent, South-East Wales, previously an ACCS (Anaesthetics) trainee. Prior to entering medicine, she had a short career in basic scientific research after completing a degree in Biochemistry (with a Year in Industry). She also enjoyed working as a healthcare assistant for a year before entering medical school.
She is passionate about promoting positive, inclusive healthcare cultures and professionalism. Civility and compassion in healthcare is a key focus and Josie has been a part of the Civility Saves Lives campaign group for a number of years. This includes presenting and co-authoring a paper exploring the impact of incivility on learning in clinical environments. She also contributes to the General Medical Council’s Good Medical Practice review external advisory group, is the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management’s Trainee Steering Group Chair and the Royal Society of Medicine’s Trainee Section co-President. Josie has a keen interest in clinical education and, in particular, differential attainment and widening participation.
SIÂN CURTIS
Siân Curtis qualified in Physics (B.Sc. and Ph.D) at University College of Swansea, UK. She is currently a Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Ultrasound Physics in the Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. She has worked for the NHS for over 30 years and is experienced in providing scientific, technical support and safety advice to both clinical procedures and research projects in MRI. Her main areas of interest are breast and prostate MRI, adoption of new techniques and development of phantoms.
DIANA DALGLIESH
Dr Dalgliesh graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1989. She worked as a junior doctor in Cape Town and Paris, moving to the UK in 1995.
While training as a GP, she developed an interest in breast disease. She has worked as a Breast Clinician since 2001 at the Royal United Hospital (Bath) and Avon Breast Screening (Bristol) and has led the Bath Family History Breast Service since 2002. She is vice-president of the Association of Breast Clinicians and has served as a project board member for the development of the Credential in Breast Disease Management.
RAJIV DAVE
Mr Rajiv V Dave is a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast and Endocrine Surgeon, based at the Nightingale Breast Centre, at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. His specialist surgical training includes a Research Fellowship awarded the Patey Prize by the Society of Academic and Research Surgery, a prestigious TIG Oncoplastic Fellowship in Manchester, and an International Fellowship in Breast, Endocrine and Melanoma in Melbourne, Australia. He has a strong academic interest and portfolio, publishing in high impact-factor peer-reviewed journals and lay-terminology patient information. He has successfully led and delivered large national collaborative studies which have informed and impacted clinical practice, and has been awarded prestigious research grants. This includes the B-MaP-C study (breast cancer management pathways during the COVID-19 pandemic) and the IBRAnet Localisation Device portfolio, and is the current clinical co-lead of the ABS ASPIRE (breast pain pathway) service evaluation. He serves in several national and international clinical leadership roles, including the Association of Breast Surgery Academic and Research Committee, and a as a founding steering member of the Kenya/UK Heath Alliance.
STEPHEN DUFFY
Stephen Duffy is a statistician by training, educated at the University of Edinburgh and Imperial College, London. He has worked in the UK, Singapore, France, Sweden and Russia.
In the past, much of his work was on randomised trials of cancer screening. These included the Swedish Two-County Trial of breast cancer screening, on which the UK’s national breast screening programme was based, the UK Trial of Flexible Sigmoidoscopy, and the UK Lung Screening Trial. As a result of the breast screening work, he has twice been awarded the Alexander Margulis Prize for Scientific Excellence by the Radiological Society of North America.
Since 2010, Duffy has been director of the Policy Research Unit in Cancer Awareness, Screening and Early Diagnosis, which is a collaboration of primary care physicians, behavioural scientists, epidemiologists and statisticians in seven institutions. It researches interventions to promote diagnosis of cancer at an earlier stage by both screening and symptomatic routes.
REBECCA GEACH
Dr Rebecca Geach is a Consultant Breast Radiologist, Deputy Director of Breast Screening and the Radiology Research Lead in the North Bristol NHS Trust. She has been part of the FAST MRI research programme for the last 5 years being both a co-applicant and co-lead in Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) grants.
ZOE GOLDTHORPE
Zoe has been a Breast Clinician for almost 15 years and President of the ABC for the last 6years. She has an interest in research and training and has been involved in the Credential for Breast Clinicians project since its inception. She lives and works in Somerset, is currently Director of Screening and outside of work enjoys music, her young family and running.
AMIT GOYAL
Amit Goyal is a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon and Associate Professor at the University Hospitals of Derby & Burton NHS Foundation Trust. His research is focused on axillary management in breast cancer and breast reconstruction. He is the CRN Breast Cancer Research lead for East Midlands. His research as a part of the ALMANAC trial and NEW START training program, has helped to understand and refine the sentinel node biopsy technique. He is the Chief Investigator of the UK’s largest breast cancer surgical trials addressing the role of axillary treatment – POSNOC and ATNEC. He is the Chief Investigator of the BIOSYM randomised breast reconstruction trial that compares synthetic with biological matrices.
ALLAN HACKSHAW
Allan Hackshaw is Professor of Epidemiology & Medical Statistics at University College London, and Director of the Cancer Research UK & UCL Cancer Trials Centre. He has >30 years’ experience in the design, conduct, analysis and interpretation of cohort/case-control studies, large real-world data studies, phase I-III clinical trials, and systematic reviews; in several areas including cancer, and tobacco and health. A particular focus has been on adult and prenatal screening, as a key investigator on large scale studies, some of which have evaluated new screening tests and policies that later became routine practice. He is undertaking work on evaluating multicancer blood tests. He is a member of the UK National Screening Committee Adult Reference Group, and co-editor of the Journal of Medical Screening. He has published more than 200 journal articles and book chapters, and sole or first author of four textbooks.
SAMANTHA HOPKINS
Sam is a Medical Oncology Specialty Registrar working at the Edinburgh Cancer Centre. She is currently completing her Medical Education Fellowship with a simulation-based research interest in factors that enhance or hinder medical trainees’ ability to adopt a growth mindset. She has been a tutor for the University of Edinburgh Medical School Clinical Communications Courses and has been an attendee at EC4H courses since 2020. She completed her EC4H tutor training in March 2023.
NEHMAT HOUSSAMI
Prof Nehmat Houssami is a clinician researcher and a Public Health physician, and Professor of Public Health at Sydney University. She leads the Breast Cancer Clinical and Population Health Research group at the Daffodil Centre. She has worked in breast imaging and screening services for 30 years and is a clinician at the Royal Hospital for Women, Randwick. Her research interests include population screening, screening women at increased cancer risk, evaluation of new technologies including breast tomosynthesis and artificial intelligence, and the impact of pre-operative staging on surgical outcomes. She is an international leader in breast screening trials and cohort studies and has expertise in systematic reviews and evidence synthesis. She has also contributed to the development of clinical practice guidelines. She has ~330 peer-reviewed publications and has co-edited two books on breast screening. She is a member of the TGA’s Advisory Committee on Medical Devices. Nehmat is the inaugural National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) Chair in Breast Cancer Prevention, and a National Health & Medical Research Council Investigator (Leader) Fellow.
JONATHAN JAMES
Jonathan James is a consultant radiologist and the Director of Education and Training at the Nottingham Breast Institute.
He is involved in clinically based research, with over 50 peer reviewed publications. His most significant work has focused on Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT), Contrast Enhanced Mammography (CEM), individual performance assessment and the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to breast cancer screening.
He is a member of the Research Innovation and Development Advisory Committee of the NHS Breast Screening Programme and the Radiology Clinical Professional Group.
LYN JONES
As a Consultant Radiologist at North Bristol NHS Trust, Lyn became interested in FAST MRI as a breast screening tool in 2014. In 2019, she became the first radiologist in the West of England for 10 years to be a successful lead applicant for a grant of funding from the NIHR. Her team’s research has so far designed, developed, standardised, and tested interpretation-training for multi-professional mammogram-readers to interpret FAST MRI. Lyn has recently received a larger grant, jointly funded by the MRC and the NIHR, to conduct a prospective multi-centre study of FAST MRI within the NHS Breast Screening Programme.
NICO KARSSEMEIJER
Nico Karssemeijer is professor emeritus in radiology at Radboud University Medical Centre in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. He gained worldwide recognition for his pioneering work in computer-aided diagnosis in breast imaging. From 1996 to 2008 he was a consultant for the Silicon Valley based company R2 Technology, making major contributions to their computer-aided detection product for mammography.
In 2014 he co-founded ScreenPoint Medical (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) to develop AI solutions for breast imaging, where he currently is Chief Science Officer. The company develops the product Transpara which is widely used to improve the interpretation of mammograms and digital breast tomosynthesis. Nico Karssemeijer is also co-founder of Volpara Health (Wellington, NZ) and QView Medical Inc. (Los Altos, CA, USA).
HANNAH LEWIS
Hannah started her career as a Diagnostic Radiographer and soon took an interest in Breast Imaging, joining a busy Screening service in Birmingham where she also became an Advanced Practitioner.
After practising Breast Ultrasound and Image Guided Interventional Procedures for several years, she then went on to train as a Film Reader and is currently a Trainee Consultant Radiographer at UHCW undertaking her Masters in Breast Imaging.
JOHN LOVELAND
John Loveland is deputy head of the National Coordinating Centre for Physics in Mammography (NCCPM). He provides advice and guidance to NHSE&I about technical aspects of the screening programme. He has 16 years of experience in medical physics with a particular interest in digital imaging and the assessment of image quality. He is the author of DRIQ and SPICE-CT – software tools designed to simplify objective image quality measurements for hospital physicists.
He currently coordinates the UK national mammography dose audits, mammography fault reports, and is researching practical ways to assess clinical image processing and AI algorithms in the field.
SIMON LOWES
Simon Lowes is a Consultant Breast Radiologist in Gateshead and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at Newcastle University. He has a variety of research interests, from lab-based projects investigating the molecular basis of breast cancers, to clinical breast cancer research. He is Treasurer of the British Society of Breast Radiology, an Advisory Editor for Clinical Radiology, and a member of the NICE Breast Cancer Committee.
IAIN LYBURN
Iain Lyburn is a consultant radiologist at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and clinical research Visiting Professor at Cranfield University. He is past Medical Director of Cobalt Medical Charity, where he is the lead for molecular imaging and research. He is a co-applicant on multiple active funded grants currently totalling >£22 million and has co-authored over 100 peer reviewed publications in a range of oncological, cross sectional and functional imaging. He was a member of the NCRI Breast CSG from 2011-2021, chairing the Translational & Imaging Subgroup for the final tenure and was research lead for the British Society of Breast Radiology 2010-2021. He has been a member of ARSAC since 2014.
ALISTAIR MACKENZIE
Alistair Mackenzie has worked in radiological physics for 30 years, gaining a wide experience in the practical testing of all types of X-ray imaging equipment. He worked in KCARE for 9 years and undertook in-depth evaluations of digital imaging systems, during which he became an international expert in quantitative analysis of digital images. Currently, he is the head of NCCPM and providing advice the NHS breast screening programme on their x-ray equipment and technological developments. Alistair has co-authored over 80 publications and over 100 reports for KCARE and NCCPM. He has presented proffered and invited papers many times at international conferences. Alistair is involved in the NCCPM research into artificial intelligence and the effect of image quality of digital mammography systems on cancer detection. Alistair is the lead for the EUTEMPE high-level (EQF 8) training modules on Quantitative Measurements and Optimisation.
SADIE MCKEOWN-KEEGAN
Sadie is the Clinical Trials Manager for North Bristol NHS Trust’s FAST MRI Programme. She has experience from different sides of research. Working for the Health Research Authority as an Ethics Committee Manager and also as an Approvals Specialist. She has also worked as a Sponsor representative for NBT. As well as Trials Manager for FAST MRI Sadie is the PPIE Lead for the NIHR funded FAST MRI DYAMOND study, with particular focus on those underrepresented in breast screening.
CLAIRE MERCER
Claire joined the University of Salford in 2015 and is currently the Head of Radiography within Allied and Public Health in the School of Health and Society. A radiographer by background, specialising in mammography Claire has 10 years experience in NHS management and a PhD by published works centred around breast compression in mammography. Claire is passionate about educating and supporting the developing radiography workforce. Her research interests lie in workforce development, education through digital health and breast imaging.
MICHAEL MICHELL
Michael Michell is Consultant Radiologist at King’s College Hospital, London. He has been Director of the South East London Breast Screening Programme, Chairman of the National Radiologists Breast Screening QA Committee and the RCR Breast Group (now BSBR) and Radiology representative on the DoH Breast Screening Advisory Committee. He has led research into evaluation and implementation of new technology in breast diagnosis and screening and is the Chief Investigator of PROSPECTS study of tomosynthesis in screening.
SHELLEY MITCHELL
Studied in South Africa and worked in radiology departments there and in the Middle East before moving to the UK in 2010; where she developed her interest in breast imaging, completing training in both breast biopsy and film reading.
Her clinical career has spanned more than 20 years as both a general radiographer and mammographer.
Shelley moved from her clinical role to Siemens Healthineers, as a Mammography Product Specialist which has allowed her to learn and share knowledge with the breast community.
OLIVER MORRISH
Oliver Morrish is the Head of the East Anglian Regional Radiation Protection Service (EARRPS) and has been working in medical physics for over 20 years, specialising in diagnostic radiology physics and radiation protection. As a graduate from the University of Kent, he started his career as a clinical technologist before completing an MSc at University College London, becoming a registered clinical scientist in 2007. He is a Medical Physics Expert, a Radiation Protection Advisor and a Chartered Scientist. Oliver delivers physics services to several breast units in the NHS Breast Screening Programme. He is a professional and clinical advisor to NHSE’s screening quality assurance service in the East of England. He is also a member of NHSE’s clinical and professional groups for physics and equipment and has contributed to various professional guidance publications. Oliver supports research into breast cancer screening, has presented at national and international conferences and has published in peer-reviewed journals.
JOANNE NOEL
SARAH PINDER
Sarah E Pinder is Chair of Breast Pathology at Kings College London and Lead Breast Pathologist at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals.
She Chairs the National Coordinating Committee for Breast Pathology (NCCBP) for the Royal College of Pathologists & the UK NHS Breast Screening Programme (BSP) and is a member of several other BSP committees. She is Vice President of the Association of Breast Pathology. She is a member of a number of clinical trial and translational research committees, including the low risk DCIS trial (LORIS), OPTIMA, MAMMO50, SMALL, NOSTRA and EndoNET, amongst others.
She has published over 350 articles in the peer-reviewed literature, and over 100 invited articles and chapters in medical textbooks.
AHSAN RAO
Mr Rao is a consultant surgeon who have special interest in breast reconstruction, revision surgery and cosmetic procedures. He is an associate lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University and post graduate fellow at Imperial College London. His research interest includes big data analysis, population-based studies, use of IT innovation and AI in healthcare and streamlining patient referral pathways. He has published many studies in surgery and cancer and continue to develop further research in breast cancer surgery.
SANDRA RILEY
Sandra Riley is a Consultant Radiographer at UHCW until 2022 and has over 20 year’s experience in breast imaging. She has had extensive experience using vacuum devices for breast biopsy using X-ray and ultrasound guidance.
IOANNIS SECHOPOULOS
Professor Sechopoulos is the chair of the Advanced X-ray Tomographic Imaging (AXTI) lab of the Department of Medical Imaging of Radboud University Medical Center, part-time Professor at the Multi-Modality Medical Imaging (M3i) group of the University of Twente, and Scientific Advisor of the Dutch Expert Center for Screening (LRCB). He performs research on a wide range of aspects of x-ray-based imaging methods, especially for breast cancer imaging.
ARCANA SETH
Dr Seth is currently working as Consultant Breast Radiologist at Greater Glasgow and Clyde. She is Deputy Clinical Director for screening services and her symptomatic sessions are at Gartnavel Hospital, South West Sector Glasgow. She is also QA lead Breast Radiology for NHSBSP Scotland. She is actively involved in audits and research projects. She is honorary lecturer at Scottish Academy of Breast Imaging and named clinical lead for Mammogram interpretation course.
NISHA SHARMA
Dr Nisha Sharma is Director of the breast screening programme for Leeds and Wakefield and a consultant breast radiologist.
She is active in research and audit and is recognised as a national and international speaker. She has developed the UK breast screening guidelines on how to manage high risk lesions. She is also involved in a number of trials looking to minimise over treatment and also support risk adapted screening. She is actively involved in studies involving artificial intelligence. She sits on a large number of committees and is audit lead for the British Society of Radiology.
RICHARD SIDEBOTTOM
Richard is a consultant radiologist specialised in breast imaging. His clinical practice is at Cheltenham. He holds a research radiology post at The Royal Marsden Hospital as part of the AI imaging hub where his current research work includes dataset extraction and curation from routinely collected patient records. Richard has an MSc in biomedical engineering and is interested in the future development of imaging technologies.
SUZANNE SMITH
Is a radiographer with a passion and interest for women’s health. She began her career as a diagnostic radiographer at Bradford then worked as mammographer for 8 years in both symptomatic and screening departments. She went on to change her career path and currently works as a women’s health product specialist for Siemens Healthineers where she uses her passion and knowledge to promote and educate people on the advantages Siemens mammography equipment.
MARTHA STUFFINS
Martha Stuffins is a Clinical Scientist working at Velindre University NHS Trust, and is the lead Medical Physics Expert for Breast Test Wales. She is currently secretary of the Radiation Protection Special Interest Group at the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine. Martha provides medical physics support across the range of modalities used within diagnostic radiology, and has a particular interest in mammography.
TAMARA SUARIS
Dr Tamara Suaris is the Clinical Director of the Breast Imaging Network, Barts Health and is an Honorary Senior Lecturer, Queen Mary University of London. She has previously been Director of Screening for Central and East London BSS. She is a PCA for the Midlands SQAS. She is research active with interests in breast density, breast intervention and CEM. Tamara is currently Secretary of the BSBR.
EMMA TAYLOR
Emma was appointed as the Chief People Office and a member of the Executive Committee for Tesco PLC in March 2022 having been the UK and ROI People Director since June 2018. As Chief People Officer, Emma is a trustee of the Tesco Pension scheme as well as an advisor to both the Tesco Board and the Renumeration and Nominations & Governance Committee.
Joining Tesco in 2001 as part of the Graduate programme, Emma has held a number of leadership roles across Stores, Distribution and Head Office. Emma is passionate about Tesco’s commitment to young people and leads on a range of programmes including being a Steering Group Member for Movement to Work.
Emma lives in Birmingham with her husband, Mark, and two young children, Freddie and Charlie.
ELIZABETH UNDERDOWN
Elizabeth studied diagnostic radiography at the University of Suffolk after transitioning from secondary school teaching in 2015. After graduating with a first-class honours degree in 2018 she joined the breast imaging department at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. In 2019 she achieved her postgraduate certificate in breast imaging and completed her training at London Southbank University and Kings College Hospital, London. Elizabeth was accepted onto the University of Suffolk’s doctoral programme in 2021 and has a keen interest in mammographers well-being and safety, improving patient services and emerging technologies in the field of radiography.
SARAH VINNICOMBE
Sarah is Lead Breast Radiologist at Thirlestaine Breast Centre, Gloucestershire NHS Foundation Trust, Cheltenham. Previously she was Director of Breast Screening at Barts Health, and Senior Lecturer at the University of Dundee from 2011 – 2018. She is past President of the British Society of Breast Radiology (2019-2022) and is a Trustee and Vice Chair of Symposium Mammographicum Conference Organising Committee.
She leads on breast imaging research in Gloucestershire NHS Foundation Trust, responsible for a large portfolio of local and national studies.
She is a regular faculty member for ECR, ESOR and RSNA and serves on multiple national and international research and clinical advisory boards.
MATTHEW WALLIS
Matthew moved to Cambridge in 2007 after 19 years as Director of the Warwickshire Solihull and Coventry Breast Screening Service. President EUSOBI 2008-2010. His major research interest is optimisation of all stages of the breast cancer pathway from mammographic image production and display to trials to investigate limiting the side effects of current treatment of lower risk disease. His 141 peer reviewed publications has informed standard setting in image quality, radiology and surgery across the world. He has a long-standing interest in DCIS and is the Chief Investigator of Low Risk DCIS trial.
LOUISE WILKINSON
Dr Louise Wilkinson is a consultant Breast Radiologist at Oxford University Hospitals NHSFT. She is Professional Clinical Advisor for London Region Screening Quality Assurance Service and National Specialist Advisor for Breast Screening in NHS England. She is an experienced breast radiologist with an interest in how we can transform delivery of breast screening.
MARY WILSON
Since its establishment in 2018, Mary has led the National Breast Imaging Academy, working with colleagues across the country and Health Education England to build the breast imaging workforce. Prior to this she was Director of Greater Manchester Breast Screening, Clinical Director of the Manchester Breast Service and Divisional Medical Director at Wythenshawe Hospital. Throughout her career she has supported and developed multidisciplinary training within breast imaging.
FRANCES YUILLE
Frances was born in Zimbabwe and trained at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London qualifying in 1987. After numerous posts in the South of England she started oncology training at the Edinburgh Cancer Centre in 1992. Following four years of training in Edinburgh in clinical oncology she moved to Newcastle and thereafter the Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow. Her first Consultant post was at the Beatson Oncology Centre with a specialist interest in breast and lung cancer. Since 2001 she has been a consultant in Edinburgh specialising in breast and lymphoma management. Between 2017 and 2020 she was the elected Medical Director of Education at the Royal College of Radiologists overseeing the new national oncology curriculum as well as many other national issues. Her breast practice for 23 years has been in SJH Livingston and the Edinburgh Breast Unit seeing breast cancer patients with early and secondary breast cancer and treating with them with all modalities of treatment. She has actively contributed to Scottish trials and contributed widely to all parts of the patient pathway. Currently she is the Breast Lead for the SCN Concensus Guideline Review. She has a career long interest in communication skills and am a senior facilitator for EC4H.
Short Paper Speakers
Mariana Afonso Matias
Mariana is currently working as a Breast Clinician Trainee at The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust after joining the National Credential in Breast Disease Management last year. Prior to this, she completed her core surgical training and worked as a surgical doctor with special interest in Breast Surgery. She is an active member of the association of breast clinicians and the national association of trainees in breast and oncoplastic breast surgery in the UK. Along with her clinical work, she is also an enthusiastic teacher and she is taking part in several different projects with regards to breast imaging.
Yan Chen
Dr Yan Chen is Associate Professor of Cancer Screening at School of Medicine, University of Nottingham. Her research involves exploring novel technologies and techniques that enhance screening programme, whilst minimising risk to the patient. She runs the PERFORMS scheme, an internationally well-known quality assurance scheme for breast screening readers to improve their mammographic imaging interpretation skills and remain up to date in their specialities. It is the UK mandated self-assessment scheme for over 34 years.
Sandra Gomes
Sandra Gomes has worked at the Scientific Computing department of RSNHSFT for 7 years. At RSNHSFT, she has completed the Scientist Training Program in Clinical Bioinformatics (Medical Physics). Sandra’s research interests include developing and validating machine learning models applied to medical imaging, with particular interest in breast density and breast Cancer risk prediction models. Sandra is also a computer scientist and curates and analyses data and develops software used within the Medical Physics department at RSNHSFT.
Kanika Kaushal
Dr Kanika Kaushal did her radiology training followed by a Breast Radiology fellowship in India. She subsequently came to the UK as an NBIA Fellow at the North Bristol NHS Trust to pursue a career in the NHS. She is currently working as a Consultant Breast Radiologist at The Nightingale Centre, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
Sarah Savaridas
Sarah is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Dundee where she recently completed her doctorate ‘Contrast Enhanced Spectral Mammography: Exploring applications for monitoring response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and textural analysis of images’. She is a committee member of the Scottish Breast Radiology Forum and committed to promoting research and development in Scotland. Sarah holds an honorary radiology consultant post with NHS Tayside and is joint-QA lead for the East of Scotland breast screening service. Her primary research interests are novel imaging techniques applied to NHS practice and equality of access to screening and surveillance.
Anusha Subramanian
Anusha is a senior training fellow in Gastrointestinal Radiology in Stoke-on-Trent. Prior to this, she did a short term attachment in Cheltenham, where she has a Quality improvement project on Incidental breast lesions.
Olivia Taylor-Fry
Olivia qualified as a diagnostic radiographer in 1997 from Hertfordshire University.
She specialised in breast imaging in 2008, completing a Masters in breast evaluation in 2018 from Kingston University, and became a Consultant Radiographer in South West London Breast Screening and Symptomatic unit. She is currently undertaking a medical imaging PhD at Salford University researching into patients’ perceptions and acceptability of a B3 breast lesion diagnosis.
Dixa Tharkar
Dixa Thakrar is trainee general surgeon in North West London, with a specialist interest in breast surgery completed her medical education at the University of Leicester and did an MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is currently a Cancer Research UK funded PhD candidate at the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford. Her thesis aims to study the role of mammographic density and other breast cancer risk factors, on pathways to breast cancer diagnosis, by investigating the relationship between mammographic density and other established risk factors for breast cancer, and exploring the role of risk factors, related to mammographic density, with mammographic screening sensitivity.
Bethan Williams
Bethan is a newly appointed Consultant Radiographer in Anuerin Bevan University Health Board, South Wales, completing her BSc (Hons) Diagnostic Radiography degree with Birmingham City University in 2009. She worked mainly in Nevill Hall Hospital, specialising in Mammography after a variety of working in general, A&E and cross-sectional imaging, whist working towards her MSc Radiography with Cardiff University. Since then, she has completed additional PG modules with Cardiff University and St. Georges University, working within a dedicated and supportive symptomatic breast team.