Research Group

Dr Ruth Strudwick

Ruth qualified as a Diagnostic Radiographer in 1995 and worked in the NHS before 

moving into education in 2001. She is currently an Associate Professor at The University of Suffolk.

In 2011 Ruth completed her professional doctorate which was entitled ‘An ethnographic study of the culture in a Diagnostic Imaging Department’.

Ruth teaches on several courses at the University of Suffolk and her research interests include interprofessional working, clinical education, work-based culture and values-based practice.

Ruth is currently working on several funded research projects, she is the editor of the journal ‘Imaging & Oncology and she is a reviewer for the journals ‘Radiography’ and ‘The Journal of Organisational Ethnography’.

Martine Harris 

Martine trained as a Diagnostic Radiographer at the University of Bradford, progressing to CT Advanced Practitioner through postgraduate study and extensive clinical experience gained in the UK and Australia.  During this time Martine contributed to the implementation of several radiographer-led CT services, the clinical training of new CT radiographers, was active within service improvement and lead on the delivery of the CT quality control programme. 

She moved to the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust in 2012 to pursue a clinical academic career completing an NIHR MSc in Clinical Research Methods at the University of Leeds.  As part of this academic award, Martine conducted a study using imaging phantoms exploring the acceptability of iterative reconstruction in acute CT head and the implementation of Sinogram Affirmed Iterative Reconstruction (SAFIRE) in comparison to traditional filtered back projection (FBP).  This consequently led to a CT visiting lecturer role at the University of Bradford and work to develop a CT simulation programme with the University.

Martine is currently a research radiographer in the Trust leading on audit, radiology clinical trials and locally initiated research in.  She has been Principal Investigator on NIHR portfolio-adopted studies exploring the utility of point of care creatinine testing and its clinical and cost effectiveness within the outpatient CT pathway.  This work has informed a NICE MedTech Innovation Briefing (MIB) and NICE Diagnostic Assessment Programme (DAP) on which Martine has acted as clinical advisor and co-author respectively.

In 2017, she started her doctoral studies investigating competency and professional advancement in Computed Tomography (the ComPACT study).  This study looks to develop and perform preliminary evaluation of the technical competencies required by CT radiographers in the UK context.  The findings of this study will inform the development of an evidence-based framework of valid CT competencies that can be used as a guide for radiography education and practitioner development from novice to expert.

Martine has authored various publications, undertaken conference presentations at local and international level, and peer reviews for three professional journals.  She maintains a keen interest in current professional issues through her involvement the Research Advisory Group.  Her research interests are in patient safety, service development, pathway improvement and radiography education. She also supports the delivery of high quality research through her position as facilitator of Good Clinical Practice (GCP) Training for the Clinical Research Network (CRN) in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

Dr Julie Woodley 

Julie qualified as a diagnostic radiographer in 1985 before obtaining her master’s degree in medical ethics and law from the University of Liverpool.

After a period of clinical practice in both the UK and USA she moved into education and is now a senior lecturer at UWE.  Her doctoral studies focussed upon ethical decision making within disciplinary teams and she has a keen interest in all ethical issues in healthcare especially those related to transplantation and the impact of new technologies.

She is also heavily involved with research governance and is chair of her faculty’s research ethics committee along with being appointed as Chair of the Central Bristol NHS Research ethics committee.  Julie is also a specialist advisor to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and has recently been appointed to Research England criteria setting panel as part of the forthcoming research excellence framework in 2020.

Julie is interested in investigating the applicability of ethical issues within a wider interdisciplinary research arena and conducts collaborative research in this area.

Jackie Matthew

Jacqueline is an experienced sonographer/radiographer with a research interest in multimodal studies (MRI/US) for improved fetal anomaly detection and diagnosis, placental and craniofacial imaging, image analysis, machine learning and automation. 

In 2015, she was awarded a Research Training Fellowship from the NIHR/Biomedical Research Centre, at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, aligned to her current work on the ‘intelligent Fetal Imaging and Diagnosis Project’ within School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, KCL. 

This has given her exposure to large scale, multidisciplinary and cross-cutting themed imaging research, project management and teaching.  Her ambitions include increasing the profile of radiography/sonography research.

Ian Simcock

Ian has over 20 years’ experience in diagnostic radiography, including delivering advanced training in CT and MRI in clinical practice in London and Australia.

He completed his MSc. at the University of Hertfordshire in Diagnostic Imaging, specialising in MRI and the assessment of diffusion weighted artefacts.  He was Deputy Research Radiographer in adult oncology for 10 years, co-ordinating multicentre trials.  He has published on cancer imaging and 3D printing and presented his work internationally at SMRT, ToScA and ECR.

More recently, he has held developed an interest in post-mortem imaging, and was the first pediatric radiographer in the UK to be awarded an NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship in 2018. His PhD thesis will focus on the “Development of Micro-CT for Human Fetal Post-Mortem Imaging”, to advance non-invasive imaging for the investigation of fetal death.  He continues to work in a part time senior clinical role in MRI at University College London Hospital.

He has a keen interest in promoting radiographer-led research and the development of AHP clinical academic careers through his involvement with the London-wide AHP and Nursing Network, and his role on the NIHR Academic Involvement Group, as well as within Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Aarthi Ramlaul

Aarthi Ramlaul trained and worked as a radiographer in South Africa (SA) and taught radiography in SA before joining the Harley Street Clinic in London as an interventional radiographer in 2001. She began teaching at the University of Hertfordshire as a Senior Lecturer in 2003. Her areas of expertise and interest lie in interventional radiology, mammography, forensic radiography, sectional anatomy and imaging, ethico-legal considerations in practice, education, pedagogy and qualitative radiographic research.

She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an external examiner for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at Exeter and Derby Universities respectively. She has authored various publications, undertaken conference presentations at national and international level, and peer reviews for two professional journals, viz. Radiography and the SA Radiographer. She is a member of the editorial board of the SA Radiographer.

In 2018, she was awarded a Doctorate in Education following a programme of research into “The meaning and development of critical thinking in diagnostic radiography”. This work has informed her current research, which includes the use of Socratic questioning methods in developing students’ critical thinking abilities.

She maintains a keen interest in current professional issues through her involvement the Research Advisory Group. She also maintains her role a registered assessor for the Society and College of Radiographers involved in the accreditation and approval of educational courses and advanced and consultant practitioner applications.

Marianne Hamer

Marianne originally qualified as a Diagnostic Radiographer in Trinidad and Tobago in 1995. She became interested in education early in her career and lectured with the School of Radiography in Trinidad. Hoping to further her career in education, she moved to the UK in 2001 to attend the University of Leeds, gaining a Master of Education degree (MEd) in 2002 with a special interest in Lifelong Learning.
She decided to specialise in Ultrasound and gained her PGD in ultrasound in 2006 from the University of Liverpool.
Whilst working as a Sonographer, she was a guest lecturer in Radiography for Liverpool University and became Clinical Tutor in ultrasound working with multidisciplinary teams.

She gained her MSc in Ultrasound in 2010 and is currently in her final year, completing a Professional Doctorate in Advanced Healthcare Practice (DAHP) from Cardiff University.

Her research is an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis study exploring wellbeing in hybrid managers in the NHS.

She was recently in a management role as Strategic lead for Imaging across The Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Aintree Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital (LWH).  She is currently Clinical Lead for Imaging at LWH.

She has a deep interest in lifelong professional and personal development, workforce issues, research and education. She is also interested in issues of equality, diversity and inclusivity.

In addition to this role with the SoR Research Advisory Group, she is a member of Liverpool Hospitals Research Collaborative and is actively involved with Cheshire and Merseyside Imaging Network and AHP faculty.

Dr Theo Akudjedu

Following qualification as a diagnostic radiographer, Theo worked clinically in some of Ghana’s busiest urban and rural radiology departments. An interest in MRI research led him to successfully complete an MSc in Neuroimaging at King’s College London in 2015.

In 2019, he was awarded a doctorate in Medicine from the Na-tional University of Ireland Galway, for his research into the pro-gression of neuroanatomical abnormalities in psychosis using MRI. This work has informed his current research, which in-cludes clinical imaging, radiography and healthcare research, neu-roimaging/clinical neuroscience and quantitative research meth-ods.

Currently, Theo is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Medical Imaging & Visualisation, Bournemouth University. He has au-thored various publications, undertaken conference presentations at local, national and international level, and peer reviews for several professional and scientific journals. He has received sev-eral early career research awards including the 2020 Early Ca-reer/Travel Award from the Schizophrenia International Research Society. He holds membership of the Health and Care Profes-sions Council, International Society of Radiographers and Radio-logical Technologists, Neuroscience Ireland, Organisation of Human Brain Mapping and the British Institute of Radiology.

He maintains a keen interest in current professional issues through his involvement in the Research Advisory Group and welcomes approaches from radiographers and others who are interested in pursuing a career in research.

Dr Amy Hancock

Amy Hancock (nee Taylor) qualified as a Therapeutic Radiographer in 2006. She is a Senior Lecturer for the Medical Imaging Team at the University of Exeter. Prior to this Amy was employed as the Principal Therapeutic Radiographer for Research and Development at Weston Park Cancer Centre and previously worked at Sheffield Hallam University as a Senior Lecturer on the Radiotherapy and Oncology programmes.

She is a scientific member on the National Cancer Research Institute Living with and beyond cancer group. Amy is also the Chair of the Research and Clinical Trials Therapeutic Radiographers (RaCTTR) specialist interest group and is a UKIO working party member, taking the position as Research Lead for the Research, Education & Workforce, Policy and QI workstream. 

She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an accredited academic visitor and assessor for the Health and Care Professions Council.

In 2017 Amy was awarded the College of Radiographers Doctoral Fellowship, she completed her PhD, which employed co-production to develop a shared definition of compassion and a conceptual framework of compassionate display in radiotherapy.  She is passionate about research that improves the care and services for patients and is an advocate for patient and public involvement in research.

Amy is a National Institute for Health Research Clinical Academic Careers Framework mentor, supporting other Therapeutic Radiographers to develop their skills and research careers.

Amy has authored various publications and undertaken oral and poster conference presentations at local, national and international level. She is a peer reviewer for four professional journals and is an international advisor for the Radiography Journal.

Joanne Micthell

Jo qualified with a BSc (hons) Therapeutic Radiography from the University of Liverpool and began her clinical career at the Northern Centre for Cancer Treatment, Newcastle.  After moving to the Edinburgh Cancer Centre, Jo worked in both the treatment and pre-treatment areas of the department.  With a specific interest in the imaging methods employed in radiotherapy she specialised as a pre-treatment Advanced Practitioner and undertook an MSc in Image Formation and Pattern Recognition at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.  Whilst in this role she was able to develop the pelvic preparation and 4D CT scanning protocols that are still in departmental use to date.  In January 2018, Jo was appointed as the lead research radiographer in Edinburgh; a role which has allowed her to explore further the impact of the bladder and rectum on prostate radiotherapy treatments. 

Jo is a member of CTRad, the SOR Research and Clinical trials SIG and since 2019 has been an active member of the United Kingdom Imaging and Oncology conference (UKIO) radiotherapy working group.

Prince Gyimah

Prince completed radiography education in Ghana in 2005 and worked for five years. He proceeded to pursue his MSc Radiography in image interpretation at Cardiff University in 2009. He worked at Macclesfield District General Hospital in general radiography, computed tomography and skeletal reporting between 2012 to 2018. While at Macclesfield Hospital, he decided to pursue part time doctorate at Sheffield Hallam University and was awarded a professional doctorate in 2018. His thesis explored research utilisation amongst diagnostic radiographers in the UK. He is also a major proponent for evidence-based radiography. Prince is interested in research dissemination within the radiography profession. He has authored a few publications, undertaken conference presentation at the national level, and peer reviews for National Institute for Health Research. Prince is an accredited advanced practitioner in skeletal reporting and is currently pursuing postgraduate certificate in adult chest reporting.

Trained as a Therapeutic Radiographer, for the last nine years she has been working in a research environment within the radiotherapy service, gaining extensive experience and research skills.

Her activities include being involved in all aspects of the legal and regulatory process of research, as well as the patient related aspects including the consent process. Her research skills were strengthened by the completion of a Master’s Degree in Health Research at the University of Leeds.

She is a founder member and Vice Chair of the Research and Clinical Trials Radiographers group (RaCTR). The group is a SIG of the SoR which meets regularly to support therapeutic radiographers working in clinical trials. Many members have joined the group since it began in December 2016.

During her involvement in the research advisory group she has been involved in writing the 4P guidelines, and the ‘Getting Started in Research’ document, and was a working member of the student awards review panel.

She is an expert member of an HRA ethics committee, which regularly reviews research from an ethical perspective. This involves training in many areas of research including medical devices, Phase I studies and studies involving adults who lack capacity.

She is passionate about research as a route to providing the evidence for future treatments and experiences, and thereby improving outcomes for people with diseases. However, appreciates the need for this to be balanced against what involvement  required from any potential participants during the research.

Dr Jenna Tugwell-Allsup qualified with a first class Honours degree from Bangor University in 2008.  She has since worked at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) initially as a general and MRI radiographer before moving into a research radiographer role in 2012.  In 2016, Jenna completed her MPhil with Salford University, in the area of ‘optimising image quality and radiation dose’.  She continued her work in this area, specifically focussing on geometry and attenuation, which recently (in 2021) led to the successful completion of her PhD by Published Works at Salford University.

Jenna is an honorary lecturer at Bangor University, both teaching and supervising research dissertations.  As deputy chair of Research and Innovation Board at Ysbyty Gwynedd she provides multi-professional training on various aspects of research at BCUHB on topics such as ‘statistics, peer-reviewing and writing for publication’; this group’s aims are largely to promote research and research training opportunities.

Within her role as research radiographer, Jenna leads on audit/quality improvement, radiology clinical trials and locally initiated research.  Her research interests include, optimising image quality and radiation dose, intra and inter observer variability, computer simulation/artificial intelligence, reducing anxiety in MRI and oncology imaging.  She also performs Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumor (RECIST) measurements for oncology clinical trials within her health board. She has been both Chief Investigator and Principal Investigator on NIHR portfolio-adopted studies including her MRI anxiety studies.  Jenna is first author on numerous Journal publications, a Bevan Fellow with the Bevan Commission and peer reviews for the international journal ‘Radiography’.

Jenna is currently working on follow-ups for the MR in Ovarian Cancer trial that she led on, exploring the use of copper filtration for neonatal imaging using DR, and opening the MIDI study, which aims to develop a software for pathology detection on brain MRI

Originally trained as a Diagnostic Radiographer at Sheffield Hallam University, and practising as a diagnostic radiographer in Nottingham, Derby and Leicester, Dr Emma Hyde subsequently gained extensive experience within Higher Education as a senior academic at the University of Derby, contributing her knowledge and insight to the delivery of professional programmes and at a strategic level.

Emma was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by Advance HE in 2020 and is an external examiner for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in diagnostic imaging at University of West of England (Bristol).

She has authored publications in ‘Radiography’, ‘Journal for Medical Imaging & Radiation Sciences’ and ‘Imaging & Therapy Practice’, undertaken conference presentations at local, national and international level, and currently peer reviews for two scientific journals.

In 2021, she was awarded a PhD in Published Works, following a programme of research into student transition into clinical placement and patient centred care in diagnostic radiography. This work has informed her current research, which includes further projects about patient centred care and placement learning.