Professor Amaka C Offiah

BSc, MBBS, MRCP, FRCR, PhD, FHEA
ORCID: 0000-0001-8991-5036

I am a clinical academic – one of the UK’s very small minority of black female professors.

My research relates to the radiological diagnosis of skeletal dysplasias and inflicted injury (physical abuse) in children, in differentiating inflicted from accidental injury and in developing new diagnostic tools, including the use of artificial intelligence. I have published over 120 research papers and I have given over 200 invited international and national lectures. I have supervised/co-supervised 6 postgraduate students and 11 BMedSci medical students, all of whom have presented their work at national and/or international conferences and most have had at least one peer-reviewed publication arising from their work. I am co-author of one international and 3 national guidelines. I have been a standing committee member for NIHR and NICE.

I have worked in the NHS as a paediatric radiologist for 17 years and also act as an expert witness for Her Majesty’s courts in cases of suspected child abuse, having provided expert reports and/or attended court in over 450 cases. I am a member of the award-winning fetal post-mortem imaging team at Sheffield Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

I am an instructor on the biannual Instructional Course organised by the Skeletal Dysplasia Group for Teaching and Research. I am co-author of 3 and have contributed chapters to a further 10 well-respected radiology and histopathology textbooks.

I am currently Chair of the BAME Staff Network, Departmental Director of Research and Innovation and Knowledge Exchange Lead at the University of Sheffield. I have been Chair of the Child Abuse Taskforce of the European Society of Paediatric Radiology (ESPR) since 2013 and Chair of the ESPR Publication Committee since 2015. Also, since 2015 I have been Convenor for the Skeletal Dysplasia Group for Teaching and Research. I am Chair of the Sheffield Children’s Hospital Scientific Advisory Committee. I was Vice-Chair of the South Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee for 4 years, stepping down in 2019.

I have provided pastoral support to approximately 30 medical students over the past 11 years and in July 2020, received an email from a doctor for whom I had been undergraduate PATS tutor (2012 to 2014), wanting to feedback to me on his progress and stating that, “At all sorts of times I have and still do think back to various of your comments and advice…and wanted to let you know how valuable this has been to me over a number of years…”.

For me, this is what mentoring is all about and I am driven to mentor and inspire, especially those who are female and/or from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups.