Allied Health Care Professional - Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance

Who are we?

Benny Lawton is a Diagnostic Radiographer of over 20 years’ experience, who has specialized in Cardiac MRI imaging for the last 14 years. For 8 years he was the Superintendent Radiographer of the Cardiac MRI Unit in the Bristol Heart Institute. He is now the Executive Cardiac MR radiographer for Advanced Diagnostics at St Joseph’s Hospital, Newport, Wales. He is a member of the European Society of Cardiology and is honoured to be the Chair of the Allied Health Professional Cardiac MRI Special Interest Group for the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI). He was the first radiographer board member of the British Society of CMR (BSCMR) and a current member of the BSCMR Radiographer working Group. For 10 years he was a member of the Technologist Committee for the Society of CMR (SCMR). He has lectured internationally for many years on how to acquire high quality CMR images and published research studies which promote role development and education for cardiac MRI radiographers. He is the Director of the Cardiac MRI course for Radiographers at St Joseph’s hospital.

Nuno Miguel Ribeiro de Almeida graduated in Radiology in 2003, He works as a MRI Technologist at Unidade Local de Saúde de Gaia e Espinho. Completed a Post-Graduation in Health Management and Administration in 2007 and a Master's in Medical Informatics at FMUP / FCUP in 2014, because he believes the investment in training aims to grow and increase his knowledge. In addition to being a trainer and tutor, he gave multiple invited lectures and was Co-Author of the book "Vascular Imaging of the Central Nervous System: Physical principles, Clinical Applications, and Emerging Techniques" by invitation. He is also trainer on the educational program "Porto CMR Level 1 course" since the first edition in 2014 and more recently since the first edition in 2022 trainer on the course Tech-CMR, a course targeted to radiographers. He considers himself professional and creative, with the ability to learn and adapt. He believes that sharing what we know is the best way to ensure that we continue to evolve.

George Bouzalis is working as an MR Technologist the last 17 years. He is working on a diagnostic center called Ygeia Ptolemaida which is located in Kozani, Greece. Is working on a 3T Ingenia and on a 1.5T Sola. He studied computer science, biomedical engineering and radiologic technologist. He is a member of ISMRT since 2013 and attended on multiple conferences. He has been elected and hold the position of Global Relations chair for 3 years. Also he participated as a representative at MR Spectroscopy, Brain Function, MR Engineering and MR in Drugs Research, Flow, PET/MR of ISMRM study groups. At last but not least he has created the MR Bugs Forum until 2022 to collect information about problems, bugs and daily challenges that MR Radiographers and Technologists experience with their MR scanners, and signed a contract with Siemens Healthineers conducting usability tests on medical equipment, software, and future prototypes.

Aideen Fallon has over 14 years’ experience in CMR and over 7 years as the Lead CMR Clinical Specialist Radiographer at the Centre for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance at Blackrock Clinic, Dublin, Ireland. She has undertaken further postgraduate studies in the area of MRI and has conducted research in CMR, specifically T1-mapping, leading to a Research Master’s (MSc) degree award from University College Dublin. She has presented some of the findings of this research at ESMRMB and also presented CMR related topics at ESMRMB. Aideen has also co-authored a chapter for “The Heart Revealed. Radiology in the Diagnosis and Management of Cardiac Conditions”, published in 2018 to celebrate International Day of Radiography. She also guest lectures in UCD to MSc (MRI) students on the topic of CMR clinical cases.

Luca Ferri formed as a radiographer in l'Aquila (Italy) and moved to England in 2018 where he started working for the NHS at Basildon Hospital (Essex - MSEFT). He became a cross sectional radiographer (CT/MR) in 2020 and eventually moved to Liverpool in January 2021 where he was employed at Aintree Hospital (LUHFT) and where he started his experience in cardiac mr imaging. He moved back to Italy at the beginning of 2024 and he currently works at the cardiac centre Monzino in Milan.

Cardiac MRI is something that interests and motivates him in gathering knowledge and skills and keeps him active in his job.

Ben Statton is an accomplished radiographer with over 22 years of MRI experience, across different MRI systems and field strengths. Born and raised in South Australia, after completing a bachelor’s degree in Medical Radiations he moved to the UK in 2000, working for many years as a clinical radiographer in the NHS. In 2015 he moved to a research role at Imperial College London as the Facility Manager at The Mansfield Centre for Innovation, a multi-disciplinary academic facility which hosts a community of scientists and clinicians using imaging to investigate genetic, cardiovascular, neurological and metabolic causes of disease.

With a Master's degree in Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences he possesses a deep understanding of MRI physics, techniques and clinical practice. Dedicated to advancing radiographer education and professional development, Ben lectures on postgraduate MRI programs at Ulster University and Birmingham City University. Over the past seven years, he has been an active member of various committees for the ISMRT, including those focused on online learning, webinars, and abstract review, helping to expand educational opportunities for radiographers internationally. Ben regularly has the opportunity to present his own research and has been an invited speaker at various international meetings on the topic of cardiovascular MRI.

Raschel van Luijk studied MBRT (Medical Imaging and Radiotherapy technics) at the Hogeschool Inholland in Haarlem. In 1997 she start working at the AMC, Academic Medical Center, in Amsterdam at the radiology department as a radiology technician. In 1999 she started working as an MRI technician on a 1.5T Siemens. In 2001 after several post-HBO courses regarding mri, she started as a MRI technician. Until now she has experience in scanning on GE, Philips and Siemens scanners on a 1.0T open MRI Philips, 1.5 Siemens , 3.0T and 7.0T Philips. Her focus is on scanning cardiovascular imaging on clinical patients as well as scanning in a research environment with the group of Prof. Aart Nederveen.

For 5 years she has also been a lecturer at the MBRT Inholland Haarlem, teaching MRI technics.

Currently she is scanning the ICMR patients with the group of Marco Gotte, scanning al the cardiac research of the Dutch atletes with the group of Harald Jorstadt and she is teammanager of the 8 MRI systems at the Amsterdam UMC location AMC with 40 technicians.

Ashwin Venkateshvaran is a CMR technologist at the Skåne University Hospital and postdoctoral researcher at the Lund University in Sweden. He has a PhD in cardiac imaging from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology and over 20 years of clinical experience in cardiac imaging, of which the last few years have been dedicated to cardiac MRI.

He is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and the American Society of Echocardiography. Ashwin is passionate about international technologist education and career development.