This summer Professor Erika Denton, national healthcare leader and noteworthy campaigner for the promotion of excellence in diagnostic services, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Salford.
Erika was the first National Clinical Director for Imaging at the Department of Health, serving in this and similar roles for the last decade. Since 2013 she has been the National Clinical Director for all Diagnostics at NHS England, provides leadership in planning, policy, management and delivery of high quality diagnostic services. She has established effective working relationships to improve imaging services between all relevant professional bodies, medical royal colleges, the Department of Health, Public Health England, Health Education England, and across informatics organisations and industry.
Imaging impacts on the vast majority of patients when they access healthcare and it forms an element of approximately 95% of hospital-based patient pathways. The rapid growth in imaging referrals has severely tested the radiology departments in every NHS Trust hospital, and Erika has led radiology through extensive changes, including the roll out of PACS to support the digital imaging revolution.
Professor Peter Hogg, who leads the Diagnostic Imaging Research Programme at the University of Salford, recognised Erika’s input as invaluable. Peter said “Erika provides a great deal of insight into which aspects of practice are worthy of investigation; she also provides insightful and critical comments at various stages of research that we jointly conduct.”