Professor Senior has recently been appointed as a Honorary Fellow of the American Society of Echocardiography.
This honour is given to people who are outside the USA. Prof Senior is the 30th person in the world to be given this award. He is the first in the UK to be recognised in this way. It is given to those who have made a significant contribution to the knowledge about heart ultrasound scanning.
One of his achievements was to develop a new technique combining heart ultrasound with microbubbles made up of an inert gas. These are injected into the blood, allowing doctors to look at the blood flow in the heart. This helps us to diagnose heart problems quicker. This technique is called myocardial contrast echocardiography, and is now standard practice across the world. Some of the initial studies were carried out in our department at Northwick Park.
He also has done a large amount of research showing how taking ultrasound pictures while someone is exercising (Stress echo) can be used to show if someone has heart disease. Again, this test is now used widely across the world. Prof Senior and his team has published numerous papers showing its effectiveness.
Future research
Our research fellows work with Prof Senior on Stress echo approach. This is often done as part of an MD or PhD project. Recent projects include looking at stress echocardiography in women, and the use of stress echocardiography in patients with moderate aortic stenosis. We have also done projects combining carotid ultrasound with stress echo to look at the benefits of the two tests being done together. Further research is planned in this area.
We will have a doctor vacancy to join our team in March, so if you are interested in research, please get in touch using the form provided.