Amaka C OFFIAH
Professor of Paediatric Musculoskeletal Imaging & Honorary Consultant Paediatric Radiologist
University of Sheffield & Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
I am a clinical academic - one of the UK’s very small minority of black (African) female professors.
My research relates to the radiological diagnosis of skeletal dysplasias and inflicted injury (physical abuse) in children, in differentiating inflicted from accidental injury and in developing new diagnostic tools, including the use of artificial intelligence. I have 235 research papers on Scopus and I have given over 280 invited international and national lectures, sat on numerous panels and been a guest on radio shows and blogs. I am co-author of three and have contributed chapters to a further ten well-respected radiology and histopathology textbooks.
I have worked in the NHS as a paediatric radiologist for 17 years and act as an expert witness for His Majesty’s courts in cases of suspected child abuse, having provided expert reports and/or attended court in over 500 cases.
I am Managing Editor of the journal Pediatric Radiology (being its first female and first ethnic minority Managing Editor), Chair of the Child Abuse Taskforce of the European Society of Paediatric Radiology (ESPR) and Convenor for the Skeletal Dysplasia Group for Teaching and Research.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) is important to me and I am currently Chair of the Race Equality Delivery Group and Faculty of Health Director for Wellbeing and EDI at the University of Sheffield and on the EDI Committees of the Royal College of Radiology and the European Society of Radiology. I am the Sheffield lead for the Generation Delta project, which aims to lay a foundation to increase the number of Black female professors in England and I am a member of the Medical Research Council’s Black in Biomedical Research Advisory Group.
I have provided pastoral support to approximately 40 medical students over the past 15 years and in July 2020, received an email from a doctor for whom I had been undergraduate PATS tutor (2012 to 2014), wanting to feedback to me on his progress and stating that, “At all sorts of times I have and still do think back to various of your comments and advice…and wanted to let you know how valuable this has been to me over a number of years…”.
For me, this is what mentoring is all about and I am driven to mentor and inspire, especially those who are female and/or from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups.
