Dr Owen Arthurs awarded NIHR Career Development Fellowship

Dr Owen Arthurs has been awarded a Career Development Fellowship (CDF) from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).The NIHR CDF awards are made to researchers with a proven track-record at postdoctoral level, and provide up to 5 years’ funding to support their development into fully independent group leaders within their designated field of research.

Dr Arthurs, Consultant Paediatric Radiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, is one of only four NIHR CDFs awarded this year and this award continues from his successful NIHR Clinician Scientist award.

This NIHR CDF award, entitled “Next generation perinatal autopsy: changing death investigation through imaging-based less invasive autopsy” allows Dr Arthurs to continue his work developing post mortem imaging as an alternative to autopsy for children. This key area of research aims to bring post mortem imaging techniques into standard clinical practice, to help families during pregnancy loss or childhood bereavement to understand why their baby or child has died. Although GOSH runs the largest perinatal autopsy service nationally, many parents do not feel that a traditional invasive autopsy is appropriate for them. Imaging offers a non-invasive way of diagnosing congenital abnormalities which can help to counsel parents about why their child died, and whether subsequent pregnancies or other existing children might be affected.

Over the course of this NIHR fellowship, novel imaging techniques such as microCT will be assessed and developed into clinical practice within the next 3-5 years, and national and international clinical guidelines will be designed for an evidence-based patient-centered approach to death investigation. Dr Arthurs, who also leads Research and Innovation within GOSH Radiology Department, commented “I am delighted that the advanced imaging plays an increasing important diagnostic role in important childhood diseases”.

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This report presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.