Monaghan attributes this ability to be at the vanguard of
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Mark J. Monaghan: training as a physicist
“enabled me to identify technology that’s likely to have a long term impact.”
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technological development to his unorthodox training as a physicist. “It’s enabled me to identify technology that’s likely to have a long term impact,” he says, adding that he’s probably the only Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and current head of an echocardiography service in Europe without formal medical training. Last year Monaghan’s contribution to research and teaching was recognised when King’s College (London University) awarded him a professorship of echocardiography.
Initially Monaghan wanted to study medicine, but opted instead for a course in medical physics where the work experience aspect of the course took him to King’s. His interest in cardiology was kindled when he came within the sphere of cardiologist David Jewitt who recognised his potential. Apart from two sabbaticals in the USA, Monaghan has remained at King’s ever since.
In the late 1970s when King’s purchased their first echocardiography machine, Monaghan was asked to launch a diagnostic service. His fascination with the technique inspired him to first undertake a master’s degree in medical instrumentation, and then a PhD, where he found a way to help make ultrasound machines more selectively sensitive to contrast agents by analysing shifts in frequency rather than just amplitude. The full extent of Monaghan’s hard work becomes apparent when he explains that at the same time he was holding down a full time job and had three young children at home.
More recently, Monaghan’s research has focused on 3-D echo where he has developed a technique to calculate the numerical value for the time delays between contractions in 16 segments of the heart which can be used to judge whether patients in “treatment grey zones” might benefit from resynchronisation therapy. Continuing this theme, his team patented 3-D Contraction Front Mapping, a technique that identifies the geographical locations of dyssynchronous areas on a moving map of the left ventricle.
As the second president of the British Society of Echocardiography, Monaghan was instrumental in establishing an accreditation scheme to improve clinical standards, which later served as a model for the EAE. Other European activities have included contributing to guidelines on contrast echo, the use of echo for guiding transcatheter valve interventions and 3-D echo.
Today Monaghan can reap the rewards of his labours. He relaxes by sailing, country walks and fine dining with his wife Frances. They’re also very proud of their three sons - the oldest two are engineers and the youngest a chef – and of another first. The Monaghans’ first grandchild was born earlier in the year.