Siva Ratnatheepan HSW

Job Title: Head of Echocardiography

Healthcare specialism: Echocardiography

Qualifications: Registered Clinical Scientist, Accredited Member of the British & European Society of Echocardiograph, BSc University of Surrey, MSc Imperial College London, Fellowships from American and British Echocardiography Societies

Siva Ratnatheepan works as a healthcare clinical scientist in Cardiology and is the head of echocardiography. He is the only clinical scientist in the department and the rest of the team are highly Specialist Cardiac physiologists, nowadays classified as healthcare scientists, who have gone through the intensive specialist training program after completion of appropriate degrees.

Siva graduated from The University of Surrey and completed an MSc in echocardiography at Imperial College, London. He started his career as a clinical physiologist at Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust and he was appointed as a Head of Echo Services at Royal Surrey in May 2019.

His comprehensive echo knowledge and skills has been recognized nationally and internationally and he has been awarded fellowships from the British and American Societies of Echocardiography.

He has dual accreditation in echocardiography from British and European Echocardiography Societies.

An echocardiogram, or an “echo” is a scan used to look at the heart and nearby blood vessels, which works as a type of ultrasound scan and sends out high-frequency sound waves that create echoes when they bounce off different parts of the body.

The echocardiography team see around 12,000 outpatients a year and around 4,500 inpatients annually. There are four echocardiography rooms with state-of-the-art Echo machines.

Siva said: “Our team of highly specialized echo physiologists are working tirelessly to provide high quality echo services to the community. We are a very busy department.

“I like echocardiography very much. It’s very interesting and it requires very in-depth knowledge. We can assess the function and structure of the heart and we are able to find out structural and functional abnormalities.

“We provide echo services to all types of medicine including cardiology, oncology, surgical and emergency medicine.

“It’s an important role. We have a great team and we provide regular training for our staff.

“I always treat all patients with respect and deliver outstanding care for them. I build strong relationship with my colleagues and clinicians to ensure there is a good team spirit.”

Now, he is hoping to encourage more young people to join the field.

“I want to promote echocardiography for the younger generation,” he added.

“We are always encouraging more young people to join this field as there is a shortage of physiologists in echocardiography at a national level.

“There are dedicated training programmes for younger people to become healthcare scientists in cardiology.”