HealthManagement, Volume 15 - Issue 4, 2015

1. What are your key areas of interest and research? 
Occult fractures and outcome in acute ankle injuries and using MR-Ultrasound to treat nerve root pain. Education is a key area of interest for me in my role as President of the British Institute of Radiology and in my own practice.
2. What are the major challenges in your field? 
One of my passions is getting radiologists working as doctors. The biggest challenge is working out whether the things we are doing are changing healthcare, impacting on patients’ wellbeing and altering the eventual outcome. 
With my ankle research, for example, it’s all very well saying you’ve discovered occult fractures, but does outcome differ as a result? In radiology we tend to see the “I have found this lesion, I have made this diagnosis” as the endpoint. If you treat the patient the same way anyway is the test altering the management of the patient? It is an area where many radiologists are weak, because their input is literally issuing a report, and they are not following up patients after seeing them. Radiologists should be looking at what the eventual outcome of that patient’s treatment is and their outcomes in terms of health – either preventative or curative and how that links into doing a test. We should be measuring value not counting the numbers. 
3. What is your top management tip? 
Get a good management team! It is really easy for me to do this job as President of the British Institute of Radiology. We have a superb management team, who are very motivated. So my tip is: “Choose the right people”. 
4. What would you single out as a career highlight? 
Hard to single out one - I was a travelling professor for the Royal College of Radiologists. I also received an award for teaching medical students at the University of Oxford, which was a nice surprise. Lastly is writing the first paper on musculoskeletal ultrasound in the world (Wilson et al. 1984). 
5. If you had not chosen this career path you would have become a…? 
Geologist. 
6. What are your personal interests outside of work? 
Playing the viola, rowing and cycling. 
7. Your favourite quote? 
“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member” – Groucho Marx.

The full Zoom On interview with David Wilson and more healthcare IT and radiology leaders can be found in our Blog section.