Gastric emptying might not sound like the most scintillating after dinner conversation, but for Radiopharmacy Trainee Clinical Scientist Shazmeen Hansrod, it is her specialist subject.
In April this year, Shazmeen was awarded the student prize for an abstract of her work, and went on to receive the Radiopharmacy prize for her presentation at the British Nuclear Medicine Society Conference Spring Conference in Brighton.
“I submitted an abstract for my research on Gastric Emptying Scintigraphy, which is a study using Nuclear Medicine to assess the emptying of the stomach.
“It was based on a nationwide audit in which I asked over 200 trusts about their protocols, and it is likely that it will be the largest audit on gastric emptying, of its kind,” Shazmeen said.
“I also won the Student Prize because of my abstract.”
Over 500 people attended the conference in Brighton this year when Shazmeen presented her results.
The Physics and Nuclear Medicine department at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals had ten papers and three posters accepted, which is a record number for this team.
Shazmeen, originally from Leicester but now living in Handsworth Wood, is still in training in her role and definitely has a favourite area of Nuclear Medicine
“I am on the Scientist Training Programme and my specialism is Clinical Pharmaceutical Science, which focuses on different areas of technical and clinical pharmacy, such as quality assurance and aseptic manufacture prediction.
“I do prefer Radiopharmacy out of all of the areas we cover as it has more of a science feel to it with the physics that go into it, so I can see myself specialising in it in the future.”
When Shaz finishes her training in 2016, she plans on creating a standard protocol for gastric emptying for the whole country.
“At the moment there is no standard protocol and each hospital uses a different method.”
She says that her heroes change quite regularly, but one person she has always admired is her Head of Department, Jilly Croasdale.
“I look up to her a lot and hopefully see myself as a Head of Department one day.”
In her spare time, Shazmeen enjoys reading and keeping fit. She also has her own blog, Life of Shaz, where she offers advice on such things as how to get the most miles out of your petrol, reviews of new books and wonderful anecdotes about her life – check out the one about smiling – which is available at http://lifeofshaz.blogspot.co.uk/
