With a GP mother and a radiologist father, John Bayliss seemed pre-destined to pursue a career in healthcare. His father, Tony Bayliss, is said to be the first ever person to read a human MRI scan, and it was the pull of radiography that has given John his professional calling. But how has his father’s legacy helped steer John’s own remarkable unique journey? During a recent trip to Aberdeen, Synergy spoke in depth with him to find out. 

John first gained a degree in science at Glasgow University, after which he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do next. Ultimately, a day spent with his father in the radiology department at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (ARI), where John now works, sealed the deal. “Ultrasound immediately captured my interest, possibly because of my father’s enthusiasm and knowledge but also because of the puzzle solving and completeness of the role, from patient interrogation and technical aspects of the examination to report writing and onward recommendations.”

With his career journey firmly carved out, John went back to university – this time to complete a radiography degree at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. The Monday after graduation he started a new job at the Hammersmith Hospital at Imperial College London, choosing to forgo the ultrasound unit at ARI – part of the NHS Grampian Foresterhill Campus – led by his father. “I was going to London with a view to try and get into ultrasound,” he says. “I thought that would be the place with the most opportunities, because of the number of hospitals there.”