Dr Amaka Offiah BSc, MBBS, MRCP, FRCR, PhD, FRCPCH
HEFCE Clinical Senior Lecturer
Academic Unit of Child Health
Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TH
Office: C4, Stephenson Wing
Telephone: +44 (0)114 2717557
Fax: +44 (0)114 2755364
Email: a.offiah@sheffield.ac.uk
Biography
I arrived from Nigeria in November 1992 and after successfully passing the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB), I became a House Officer and then a Senior House Officer at Oldchurch Hospital in Romford, Essex. I obtained my MRCP in 1995.
I then moved to Sheffield for my radiology training where I developed an interest in paediatric radiology, particularly in child abuse and skeletal dysplasias. I passed my FRCR in 1998 and was offered the opportunity to study for a PhD with the Institute of Child Health / Great Ormond Street Hospital. I successfully defended my PhD (Optimisation of the radiological imaging of suspected non accidental imaging) and was appointed as a Consultant in 2004.
I remained at Great Ormond Street Hospital until November 2009, when I took up my current appointment with The University of Sheffield as a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Academic Unit of Child Health.
Research Interests
I am interested in the imaging of suspected child abuse and skeletal dysplasias and in methods of determining which children have fragile bones prone to fracture and which do not. More specifically, I am concentrating on the optimisation of current techniques and development of novel methods of distinguishing brittle from normal bones, in understanding the mechanisms of accidental injury in infants and young children and in improving the detection and dating of the subtle fractures seen in abuse.
Teaching Interests
I contribute to the teaching of Radiology Specialist Registrars on rotation at Sheffield Children´s Hospital. I offer SSC and B Med Sci attachments to medical students and I currently co-supervise 5 PhD students. I give a large number of invited local and national lectures on various radiology, paediatric, genetic, emergency medicine and orthopaedic courses. I am an instructor on the biannual Instructional Course organised by the Skeletal Dysplasia Group for Teaching and Research and helped to develop and then taught on the inaugural national skeletal dysplasia course held in Bangalore, India in August 2010. I have contributed chapters to several well-respected radiology textbooks, and am co-author of a Radiological Atlas of Child Abuse.
Professional Activities
I am a Panel Member of the European Skeletal Dysplasia Network (ESDN) and a committee member of the International Consortium for Vertebral Anomalies & Scoliosis and the Skeletal Dysplasia Group for Teaching & Research. I contributed 5 paediatric modules to the Royal College of Radiologists award-winning Radiology Integrated Training Initiative. I am an Editor of Paediatric Radiology (the journal of the Society of Pediatric Radiology and European Society of Paediatric Radiology) and the first European Associate Editor of the Year Book of Radiology. I am a Partner Governor on the Board of Sheffield Children´s NHS Foundation Trust, representing the University of Sheffield, and was recently appointed as the Academic Member on the Yorkshire (and Humber) Regional Council of the BMA. I was a member of the NHIR HTA Programme, Clinical Evaluation and Trials Prioritisation Group from its inception to its closure (2008-2010). I act as an expert witness for the courts in cases of suspected child abuse. I am a founder of the junior arm of the European Society of Paediatric Radiology (JESPeR) and a founder member of the Child Abuse task force of the ESPR.
Current Projects
- Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging of trabecular bone
- Mechanisms of injury in children less than three years of age presenting to Sheffield Children’s Emergency Department
- Biomechanics of fractures in children: Phase 1 - Development of FE model of a child’s tibia
- Development of FE models of the lateral spine, using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry scans in children
- Replacing conventional spine radiographs with dual energy x-ray absorptiometry in children with suspected reduction in bone density
Key Publications
Leung, R., Fairhurst, J., Johnson, K., Landes, C., Moon, L., Sprigg, A. and Offiah, A.C. (2010) Teleradiology: A modern approach to diagnosis, training and research in child abuse? Clinical Radiology (in press)
Offiah, A.C., Alman, B., Cornier, A.S., Giampetro, P., Tassey, O., Wade, A., and Turnpenny, P.D., and ICVAS (2010) Pilot assessment of a radiologic classification system for segmentation defects of the vertebrae. American Journal of Medical Genetics 152A: 1357-1371.
Thayyil, S., Cleary, J.O., Sebire, N.J., Scott, R.J., Chong, K., Gunny, R., Owens, C.M., Olsen, O.E., Offiah, A.C., Parks, H.G., Chitty, L.S., Price, A.N., Yousry, T.A., Robertson, N.J., Lythgoe, M.F. and Taylor, A.M. (2009) Post mortem examination of human fetuses: a comparison of whole-body high-field MRI at 9.4T with conventional MRI and invasive autopsy. Lancet 374: 467-475.
Leung, R., Nwachukwu, C., Pervaiz, A., Landes, C. and Offiah, A.C. (2009) Are UK radiologists satisfied with training and support received in suspected child physical abuse? Clinical Radiology 64: 690-698.
Weber, M.A., Risdon, R.A., Offiah, A.C., Malon, M., Sebire, N.J., (2009) Rib fractures identified at post-mortem in sudden unexpected deaths in infancy (SUDI) Forensic Science International 189: 75-81.