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Dr Elspeth Whitby, consultant radiologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, has received the Distinguished Service Medal in recognition of her significant and lasting improvements to women's health.
She is one of only a handful of individuals to be awarded the national honour in its recent history, which is bestowed by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to those who demonstrate exceptional, long-term contribution to obstetric and gynaecological care.
Dr Whitby pioneered a fetal MRI scanning service which precisely detects some abnormalities in the placenta and babies in the womb.
The service, which was first developed by Dr Whitby in Sheffield and is now available nationally, offers additional scans to women when a problem has been detected on a pregnancy ultrasound scan or there is a family history of previous problems and more detailed images of the anatomy are required.
Pioneering care
Her efforts have been pivotal in reducing the need for women to travel long distances at an often anxious and worrying time and women referred to the service can now either have their scans at Sheffield or more locally to them. The MRI scans are performed at other centres and sent to Sheffield for review.
In addition, she has used her specialist expertise to support and train other centres to be able to perform the scans, teaching fellow radiologists how to interpret the images. This will ultimately lead to the creation a network of centres of excellence around the UK to benefit women requiring the service.
The service has also been supported by ongoing research to improve the images, assess their value and review the service to ensure it continually meets the needs of the women who use it.
'Thank you'
She also used her in-depth knowledge and understanding of specialist imaging to co-develop the world's first post-mortem MRI clinical service. This minimally invasive service offers an alternative to full autopsy on babies who have sadly passed away. This provides important information for parents and families whilst also respecting their wishes at a time of great distress.
Dr Whitby, who is also an honorary senior lecturer in fetal, placental and postmortem MR Imaging at the University of Sheffield, was put forward for the award by her clinical colleagues.
She said:
"It was a great honour to receive this award which marks a career dedicated to developing and improving MRI imaging of the baby and the placenta. I would not have been able to do any of this without the support of both my colleagues in radiology, physics and obstetrics and the women who have kindly allowed me to obtain and use their images, many of whom were going through a very hard time in their lives. This award is a thank you and a recognition of all these people too and hopefully will encourage other radiologists to work in this field."
Recognition of the specialist area will also help encourage junior colleagues to consider careers in this specialist area.
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