Trainee Clinical Scientist

NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde

Sarah Williams is currently in the final stages of training to become a Clinical Scientist in Medical Physics and hoping to achieve professional registration with HCPC in March 2020. Sarah's specialism training has been carried out within Nuclear Medicine and Nuclear Cardiology at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, learning about the principles of imaging with ionising radiation. She is also the current Chair for the Scottish trainee network for Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering.

In June 2016, prior to starting the training scheme, Sarah graduated with a MEng in her undergraduate degree, Biomedical Engineering at the University of Glasgow. As part of this degree, she carried out a final year project within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in Nuclear Cardiology at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. This project involved writing code within Python to develop a machine learning algorithm to classify dopamine transporter (DaTSCAN) images, acquired for the diagnosis of Parkinsonian disorders.

In September 2016, Sarah was accepted onto the Scottish Medical Physics and Engineering Training scheme, a competitive training programme developed in Scotland, equivalent to the Scientist Training Programme (STP) offered within England and Wales. This scheme provides a route to achieving professional registration as a clinical scientist with HCPC. The equivalence route is completed through the Academy of Healthcare Science and is a 3.5 year long programme funded by NHS Education for Scotland. The training scheme involved an IPEM accredited MSc at the University of Glasgow in Medical Physics. Sarah was given the opportunity to complete a four month project in Nuclear Medicine at Gartnavel General Hospital, titled “Dosimetric Investigation and Optimisation of Liver Radioembolisation Using 90Y Microspheres”. The main objective was to retrospectively analyse patient images from the pre-therapeutic and post-therapeutic SPECT/CTs to assess if pre-therapeutic images could be used as a predictor of SIRT dosimetry. In November 2017, she graduated with an MSc in Medical Physics.

Following completion of the postgraduate Masters degree, Sarah began her foundation year training which involved four rotations within radiotherapy, radiation protection, imaging with non-ionising radiation and imaging with ionising radiation. Sarah also completed an acquaintanceship rotation within clinical measurement. These placements provided her with an insight into the different departments and taught her about the role and responsibilities of a clinical scientist.

Sarah's specialism year training has been completed in imaging with ionising-radiation, carried out in Nuclear Medicine and Nuclear Cardiology at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Throughout her specialism, she has completed multiple placements carried out at Health Physics, Nuclear Medicine at Gartnavel General Hospital, West of Scotland PET Centre, the Institute of Neurological Sciences and Nuclear Medicine at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

Sarah's final training portfolio was submitted to the Academy of Healthcare Sciences in December 2019 and she is awaiting the outcome and confirmation of final viva date.

During higher education and training within the NHS, Sarah has been a STEM ambassador and committee member in the Scottish Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering trainee network as first year representative, communications officer and Chair. This has provided her with the opportunity to act as an advocate for healthcare science and its training scheme. Sarah has aimed to improve training for future trainees, network with trainees across Scotland and improve training resources such as site-specific handbooks and the development of our trainee network webpage: https://www.smpetn.scot.nhs.uk/

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