In 2025, thousands of patients at St Thomas' Hospital benefited from improved access to advanced imaging, following targeted initiatives led by King's School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences.
The School's advanced imaging facilities, which include the PET Centre and nine advanced MRI systems embedded in St Thomas' Hospital, support a dual mission: delivering specialist clinical imaging to more than 20,000 patients each year, and enabling a diverse portfolio of cutting-edge biomedical imaging research.
Referrals to the cardiac MRI service increased by almost 50 per cent in 2025. While the demand reflects growing clinical need, the increased volume led to waiting times longer than the required six-week standard for routine outpatient scans.
"Long waits can be distressing for patients who are often anxious for answers and have already waited for some time to see a specialist after GP referral," said Dr Sharon Giles, Director of Clinical & Research Imaging Operations at the School.
To minimise the impact on patients, the School developed and ran a focused waiting list initiative. This included purchasing additional capacity from a mobile MRI provider in partnership with Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Trust for 20 weeks, expanding weekend scanning and bringing in additional consultants to report on the extra scans.
As a result, routine waiting times were restored to under six weeks for most patients.
Our routine waiting list is now back under control and we continue to receive excellent quality feedback from our patients. We're working hard to maintain this position, even as referrals remain high.
Dr Sharon Giles, Director of Clinical & Research Imaging Operations at the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences
The PET Centre, which runs a clinical PET service in parallel with an extensive programme of clinical research, saw similar success in 2025. Although referrals remained steady, capacity was reduced while the previous two PET scanners were replaced with two Siemens Biograph Vision Quadra total-body PET systems.
Now fully operational, the new scanners offer significantly faster scan times, meaning patients spend less time in the scanner and more scanning slots are available each day. This has enabled the team to recover and improve upon previous performance levels.
In addition to the hardware upgrade, improvements in data quality have helped the team more accurately identify patients on the most critical cancer pathways, ensuring those who need scans most urgently are prioritised and seen as quickly as possible.
Across MRI and PET services, these improvements are helping to reduce delays, improve patient experience and support earlier, more informed clinical decision-making.
By responding proactively to service pressures and investing in the most advanced imaging technologies, we are strengthening our ability to deliver world‑class, patient‑centred care and research. I am proud of our teams for driving this progress, and we remain committed to ensuring patients benefit from the very best that innovation in imaging can offer.
Professor Sebastien Ourselin FREng FMedSci, Head of School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences
