Alan

I am currently a working as a specialist Echocardiographer at the main tertiary centre for the South West, Derriford Hospital, as well as running clinics across the county of Cornwall. I hold BSE accreditation within the field of cardiac ultrasound. My role involves a range of duties including standard TTE, transoesophageal echo, bubble studies and contrast echo. I also have previously worked as a cardiac arrhythmia specialist, focusing on diagnostics of the electrical conduction system of the heart, analysing and interpreting electrocardiographic information obtained via ambulatory heart monitoring. This was a national post and was required to assess arrhythmias on a variety of levels; standard 12-lead ECG with 30 minute turnaround, 24hr/48hr/72hr/7day Holters with 3 day turnaround and 6 lead ECG's for bluecrest services.

I have a substantial clinical background in cardiac physiology, working as a Cardiac Physiologist in various hospitals across London and the UK, the largest of which being Kings College Hospital where I performed all non-invasive cardiac disciplines (ESE, ETT, ECG, Tilt Table Testing, Holter analysis). I have also worked at the Bristol Heart Institute where I was part of an arrhythmia assessment team.

I graduated from Plymouth University in 2020 with a 1st class honours in BSc Cardiac Physiology degree at Plymouth University and will now be working towards the congenital BSE accreditation for Echocardiography and a subsequent specialism within cardiac sonography.

Tutoring Experience

I have taught and continue to teach medical students how to scan to BSE standard, helping registrars and junior doctors in achieving their own accreditation. This also includes the theoretical principles behind ultrasound, including physics and instrumentation, advances in technology with the use of leading industry medical equipment such as Philips and GE. I am competent in life-support administration to ILS standard.

Tutoring Approach

I find tutoring to be very rewarding, and find it to be a passion of mine. I have learnt that by using the right approach and using positive reinforcement in my teaching, my students find their experience extremely beneficial and often refer me on to their colleagues and fellow professionals/aspirant physiologists/doctors. My approach is very open, with a particular preference for discussion rather than direct teaching, as I find my tutees respond better to this method of tutoring.