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‘The best career in the world’ 

Dr Louise Burton is a trained forensic and postmortem radiographer. Forensic radiographers essentially use diagnostic imaging to aid in questions of law. This may include evidence supporting investigations into injury or establishing the cause of death of a person. 

She is also a lecturer in diagnostic radiography at the University of Liverpool. She trained at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, qualifying in 1999 – though she feels as though it was “just yesterday”.

Louise doesn’t know why she was drawn to radiography initially, but she’s positive that choosing this career was the right decision. “Like with many things in my career, I landed on my feet,” she says. “Because even now, 25 years later, I still think it's the best career in the world.”

Her path into forensics was preceded by an existing interest in the specialty. Coupled with the natural interests of a Diagnostic Radiographer, this created the ideal career pathway for her. “I think naturally, as Diagnostic Radiographers, we’re quite into solving puzzles – finding the break, finding the pathology, all that sort of thing.”

Try, try, try

As part of the UK branch of The International Association of Forensic Radiographers, Louise was a member of the working group, alongside the Society of Radiographers, that rewrote the guidelines on forensic and post-mortem imaging. “We’ve expanded the guidelines to encourage students to become more aware and consider being involved,” she explains. “It’s an area that is ever increasing.

“We have a couple of dedicated postmortem CT scanners that my colleagues run, and they welcome students to come in and have a look at it. So it’s something that I would encourage people and students to read about, and try it.”

Louise favours the teamwork involved in forensic and postmortem radiography. For forensic radiography specifically, team contributions are often vital, particularly when findings are presented as evidence in court.

Above all, she encourages students to look into the specialism if they find it even remotely interesting. After all, there’s no shame in deciding that it’s not your thing. “Sometimes people think ‘it’s not for me’, and then find that it is,” she says. “But also, it’s something that’s always voluntary. So there’s no shame if you think you might like it, and then decide that you don’t. There are so many areas within it.”

Reach out

When asked what advice she would give a budding radiographer, Louise is definite in her response: “Do it, absolutely.” The profession calls for a wide skillset, with different abilities needed in different areas. “The skills that you need to work in breast screening, where patients are anxious about having breast cancer, are different from what you need to work in a trauma setting, and are different from what you would need to work in a CT scanner, which is constantly busy,” she explains.

“So whatever you're interested in, or wherever your personality is, there will be a part of radiography that suits you.”

Explore your options 

This sentiment is echoed by Dr Ian Simcock, clinical academic radiographer at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Clinical academic radiographers utilise their radiography training for research purposes, conducting studies and leading trials. He recommends that those considering a career in radiography speak to radiography professionals to get the full scope of the profession.

Ian is a Diagnostic Radiographer by trade. But he thoroughly explored his options, spending some time on the ground both in diagnostic and therapeutic radiography before deciding where his interests lay. “I think it’s about exploring your options before committing to a course within radiography; visit both diagnostic and radiotherapy departments to speak to people and try and identify how a career in these areas may look.

“I think you get a huge insight into the career by actually speaking to radiographers on the ground.”

Taking a lead role

Ian qualified in 1996 at Keele University. He then worked at a district general hospital in London before jetting off to Australia for three years, where he continued to gain experience Down Under. After gaining a good grounding in multiple areas of radiography, he specialised in MRI and CT, working across different areas such as musculoskeletal, oncology and paediatrics.

Following additional years in several agency roles and research positions, he was seconded to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. Through the guidance of Professor Owen Arthurs, Ian was the first paediatric radiographer to be awarded PhD funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research. This not only allowed him to complete his doctorate, but also to develop a new clinical service.

Nowadays, Ian’s role is split 50 per cent in the clinical area and 50 per cent in the academic and research area, leading on grant funding, developing other professionals’ research skills and further developing imaging services. “The difference between a research radiographer and a clinical academic is that it’s my role to lead trials, from conception of an idea through to a successful study completion. This involves identifying areas for research, writing a suitable grant application, involving participants in that design process and hopefully successfully being awarded the grant funding.

“Then to lead that work and develop a team containing diverse professions and skills to really drive the research forward, ultimately building towards better clinical service as well as academic development.”

As part of his role, Ian’s specialty lies in micro-CT. This is a CT scanning system that allows radiographers to scan to micron resolution down to a 1,000th of a millimetre.

“It means that you can scan extremely small objects at very high resolution,” Ian says.

Cutting edge of medicine

Utilising micro-CT, through his PhD Ian developed a clinical service that allows his team to scan babies that have died during pregnancy. This allows their deaths to be investigated in a non-invasive way, as an alternative to a conventional autopsy.

While he draws on the benefits of being on the cutting edge of clinical services, Ian finds working with parents and pregnancy loss charities to be equally satisfying. “What I find really rewarding about this work is engaging with parents and working with them to improve our service,” he explains. “Listening to parents who’ve experienced pregnancy loss and the charities within this area to enhance the clinical service and associated research is vital and extremely rewarding.

“As a team, we’re determined to spread the micro-CT clinical service nationally and even internationally, as it’s crucial that this service becomes available to more parents. That’s our mission for the next few years.”

Building relationships 

That element of personal contact is also what drew Conor Fitzpatrick, consultant radiographer in palliative radiotherapy, to therapeutic radiography. Therapeutic radiography focuses on providing treatment to alleviate symptoms of disease, rather than cure.

Conor gained his BSc in therapeutic radiography at the University of Portsmouth, before moving on to roles at the Beacon Centre in Taunton in Somerset and the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester. Before taking on his current role at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool, Conor completed a master’s in radiotherapy and oncology at Sheffield Hallam University.

Conor says he was pulled towards therapeutic radiography by the relationship that could be built with patients. “I was interested in diagnostic, but there was something missing,” he admits. “The thing I really missed was that idea that you build up a relationship with the patient, and then I discovered therapeutic and that was really at the core of what attracted me to it.

“Because when I was initially qualified, it was the fact that you were going to see someone for five, 10, 15, up to 33 treatments each day Monday to Friday, and you build a relationship with them. You get to know them, help support them, and I’ve always enjoyed that element of the job and the patient contact.”

While his current role sees Conor spending less consistent time with patients, he still prioritises solidifying a strong bond. “This job is a little bit different because I guess I don’t see the patients for that consistent number of times, but we see them more acutely,” he explains.

“I really enjoy that part of the role, that you have to build up and break down barriers and build up a relationship and a rapport with someone really quickly to hopefully get them to trust you, to understand and talk through some relatively complex things that they might need to be doing.”

Symptom control

Conor’s work focuses on non-curative radiotherapy, which is often used for symptom control. “That might be for, most often, spread of cancer to bones,” he says. “Bone pain can be quite significant, and radiotherapy can be a really excellent treatment for that.

“But we can also treat other areas including things like soft tissue disease, organs that might be causing bleeding, including from oesophageal cancers that might cause bleeding or bladder, prostate or gynaecological tumours that may cause bleeding as well.”

While this area of radiotherapy may sound niche, Conor presents it as an opportunity for radiographers to delve into specific areas they find the most interesting – and subsequently become more skilled. “The ethos behind consultant radiographer roles in therapeutic radiography, but also within diagnostic radiography, is that we take on duties that were traditionally associated with our medical colleagues,” he says. “We’re skilling up in a particular area of practice to best support the patients.

“The thing I would say about my area of practice, and how I would try to sell it to someone, is that you get to see such a wide range of patients from across oncology and haematology. It is a role that I am continuing to learn within to expand my practice. There are, however, also further site specialist roles including in prostate, breast, lung and head and neck to name but a few.”

To radiographers seriously considering entering a specialty, Conor encourages them to get as much of an overarching view of the profession as possible – something he dubs a “global view”. “It’s really important to get as much varied experience in the department as you can, particularly while you’re new at a post and when you’re starting off in your career, to get that global view,” he says.

“Looking back, I was so fortunate in my career that I was able to work in different areas and get those different experiences, because it’s helped me now to specialise, and also to understand who to speak to within the department about a particular problem or issue, so you can best support your patients.”