Edinburgh Imaging

11 Jul 18. Dr Gillian Macnaught

Dr Gillian Macnaught, lead PET-MR physicist, discusses her scientific management of & technical innovations research into, the PET-MR scanner at the Edinburgh Imaging Facility - QMRI.

 

Transcript – Dr Gillian Macnaught, 2018

“I’m Gill Macnaught, I’m the lead PET-MRI physicist for Edinburgh Imaging.

I’m responsible for the scientific management of the PET-MRI scanner based here at the Edinburgh Imaging facility at QMRI. It’s the only one of its kind in Scotland. It allows simultaneous acquisition of PET & MR images. This provides a unique opportunity to directly compare the capabilities of these very different imaging modalities, and to develop new protocols that benefit from both techniques.

 I work collaboratively with different researchers wishing to use the PET-MRI scanner as part of their studies. I provide expert advice on protocol development, I implement & test protocols on the scanner, I provide hands on problem solving during scanning sessions to ensure high quality data, and I provide custom solutions to image reconstruction problems.

My own research interests lie in the technical innovations that would allow PET-MRI to go from being largely a research tool, to part of the clinical routine. As part of this I’m working on new methods for attenuation correction PET data using MRI.”