Niall MacDougall

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Niall MacDougall, Head of Clinical Dosimetry (Treatment Planning and Computing), Barts Health NHS Trust. Honorary Lecturer, Queen Mary College, University of London.

Digital Pioneer Fellowship project: Converting radiotherapy department to be paper-light

The aims of this are to enable efficient working practices and minimise delays in the patient pathway to ensure the time from decision to treat to treatment is as timely as possible. Using the appropriate technology for both the current task and for future recall of the treatment.

Niall is a consultant clinical scientist in radiotherapy at St Bartholomew’s hospital in London, whose main role is head of computerised treatment planning. However, over the years he has expanded this initial role considerably and has an active interest in all areas of radiotherapy, IT and in the wider running of the hospital site and Trust. A keen innovator, his main motivations are to ensure the clinical service is as efficient and safe as possible. This is being achieved through a combination of digital innovation and enabling staff to reach their full potential by ensuring a cohesive team environment.

Niall started out in the highlands of Scotland, but time would take him forever south, passing through Glasgow, pausing long enough to do a Physics BSc, to settle in Leeds for 7 years training at the Cookridge hospital and an MSc at Leeds Uni. From there the bright lights of London drew him onwards to St Thomas’ and then finally to Barts. During all this he even managed to squeeze in a part-time PhD.

“Healthcare is being transformed through the power of computers; from improving safety by eliminating transcription and adding automatic safety checks, to gathering vast amounts of data and allowing complex analysis to feedback to the treatment process and inform future developments.”