Healthcare Science Week 2026 - What’s a Cardiac Physiologist? | News

At Royal Surrey, more than 240 colleagues work as healthcare scientists, using their technological and scientific expertise to support patient care. In celebration of Healthcare Science Week 2026, the trust is highlighting this diverse and essential workforce and aiming to inspire future scientists to explore the many opportunities the profession offers.

Nationally, healthcare science underpins 80% of all NHS diagnoses, and three in four clinical decisions are informed by scientific expertise. At Royal Surrey, teams operate across all four areas of healthcare science specialisms influencing and informing care. Dr Gail Anastasi Distefano is the Lead Healthcare Scientist, alongside her clinical role as Principal Radiotherapy Physicist. She explains:

“We sit at the intersection between science and real human impact; some healthcare scientists are mainly working in labs or behind the scenes, but still directly change patient care. You could be working clinically or performing research in radiation physics, cardiology, audiology or life sciences; as a problem‑solving and innovation‑driven scientist, it’s the place to be!”

One of those scientists is Eleonora Pignatelli, a cardiac physiologist and one of Royal Surrey’s lead specialists involved in the implantation of heart devices. She has recently completed two prestigious qualifications in her field. Her expertise spans assessing clinical need, supporting surgical implantation, and technically monitoring cardiac devices ranging from pacemakers that regulate slow heart rhythms to more complex implantable devices. These include cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) systems, which improve coordination and pumping efficiency in selected patients with heart failure, and implantable cardioverter‑defibrillators (ICDs), which detect and treat life‑threatening irregularities.

Eleonora’s story:

Back in Italy where I did my bachelor’s degree, I knew I wanted to work in a science related career.  In high school I’d heard about this very niche expertise in healthcare science and was drawn to the clinical as well as the science part which I thought was cool.  So, I did a cardiac pacing and electro physiology masters which led me here.   It’s the perfect combination of science, technology, trouble shooting and patient care.

At Royal Surrey we have two branches of Cardiac Physiology, the echo team who do all the scans and the pacing team, where I work, who specialise in the devices.  We work very closely with consultant cardiologists, radiographers and nurses to ensure the right cardiac device is selected, implanted and monitored for each patient.

Positioning and testing the device when it’s implanted is an intricately precise exercise and we’re in theatre to help advise and test immediate measurements to check it’s correct.  After that we meet with the patients and continue to assess the effectiveness of the device – that’s what we’re all about, improving their quality of life using our clinical and technological expertise. 

I’ve been at Royal Surrey for almost four years and it’s been a great place to continue my career development.   Encouraged by my very supportive team here I’ve recently gained one national and one international qualification for heart rhythm management and am now the team’s lead for remote based monitoring of implanted cardiac devices.   This is an expanding area as technology advances and we’re able to check the data from an implanted device remotely.  This is brilliant for the thousands of patients who no longer have to come into hospital to have their devices checked as we can have daily oversight of how they’re doing.   And the number we can support with this is only going to increase.

Would I recommend it? If you’re drawn to a role where every day is different, you’re curious about how technology can advance patient care in the field of cardiology, if you like trouble shooting and a really lovely team – absolutely I would recommend it!

To find out more about how to make a difference in a healthcare science role visit the NHS careers website or get more information about training go to the National School of Healthcare Science.