Sealing the partnership are Toshiba Medical Systems UK md Mark Hitchman and co-director of CRIC Bristol Dr Chiara Bucciarelli Ducci, consultant cardiologist at Bristol Heart Institute. Standing are University of Exeter Children’s Health and Exercise Research Centre director Professor Craig Williams, senior research fellow and CRIC Bristol centre manager Dr Jade Thai, Toshiba Medical Systems branch manager Tim Palarm, trust lead scientist and director of medical physics and bioengineering Dr Diane Crawford and Bristol Congenital Heart Unit academic clinical lecturer in paediatric cardiology Dr Guido Pieles.
Toshiba Medical Systems is embarking on a three-year research partnership with the University of Bristol and the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust’s Clinical Research and Imaging Centre (CRIC Bristol) to benefit children with congenital heart disease.
Said to be the first study of its kind in the UK, it will collaborate with the Bristol Heart Institute and the University of Exeter’s Children’s Health and Exercise Research Centre to use echocardiography to investigate the effects of exercise on children with CHD under exercise conditions.
Dr Guido Pieles, academic clinical lecturer in paediatric cardiology at Bristol Congenital Heart Unit, said: “It is our aim that this research benefits the NHS through better understanding of the role of exercise in life-long care for children born with CHD. We hope to improve scanning protocols and applications that will enable better, more precise and earlier diagnosis of heart function abnormalities and then to quickly identify effective treatment pathways for children with CHD.
“We will also be able to better assess the benefits of exercise for children with obesity and other conditions caused by poor diet and sedentary lifestyles.”
See the full report on the front page of the January 2014 issue of RAD Magazine.