Senior Chief Echocardiographer - Lead of ICC and Cardiomyopathy

Job overview

Following the formal merger of the inpatient services across RBH and the Evelina London, there is a need to expand and develop the echocardiography service to address the growing needs of this large and dynamic service.

This post seeks to employ an experienced echocardiographer with a high level proven experience in paedatric echocardiography and congenital heart disease.  The role is for the Lead of Inherited cardiac conditions (Cardiomyopathy) and Functional assessment- so the applicant should have a strong interest in these areas and the ability to grow and develop this service.

Main duties of the job

Lead Congenital Cardiac Physiologist: Inherited Cardiac and Cardiomyopathy (Paediatric Echocardiography).

The post holder will lead the Inherited Cardiac Conditions and Cardiomyopathy service. Using advanced techniques for functional assessments, this post will also meet the growing requirements to manage and deliver the echocardiography service for inherited cardiac conditions and functional assessments at our trust.

The position requires a highly skilled independently reporting, qualified paediatric echocardiographer.  They will perform transthoracic studies on paediatric patients with congenital heart disease to a high level and and further training and support will be provided as appropriate for the right candidate in other areas of advanced echocardiography.  They will manage their own transthoracic echo lists in outpatient and inpatient settings and liaise with other health care professionals to provide reports and opinions.  They will be comfortable working in acute settings as required.

The post holder carries responsibility for the management of their clinical caseload. The post holder will provide specialist professional expertise in their technical discipline and will act as an educational resource within the department.

The post holder will be encouraged to maintain CPD through attendance to courses and conferences as appropriate and further seek out training and development with specific reference to their lead role in ICC and cardiomyopathy.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Principal Responsibilities and duties:

Clinical:

• Achieves and maintains a high level of competence in paediatric and congenital echocardiography.  Produce an accurate and comprehensive report for each study, with responsibility for your own caseload.
• Perform transthoracic echocardiograms to a high standard in accordance with departmental minimum standards, with sufficient experience and knowledge to deviate from policy as required to obtain a clinically relevant study.
• Interpretation of complex clinical information to diagnose a variety of highly complex congenital cardiac pathologies, including potentially life-threatening anatomies, and applying theory to delivering a comprehensive study, including the interpretation and reporting of information you personally acquire.  Provides clinical evaluation pre- and post-operatively.
• Be responsible for leading, managing and developing the Inherited Cardiac Conditions service within the cardiac department.
• Ensure that personal knowledge base in current and up to date for this field of work.
• Participate in outreach clinics often with consultant support
• Ensures that all clinical duties are carried out in such a manner as to ensure safety and compliance with departmental minimum standards.
• To act as an effective role model within the department contributing to the education, training and development of technical staff.
• To be responsible for overseeing minimum standards within the specialist area, ensuring that these are maintained and any issues identified are reported to the principal cardiac physiologist.
• To maintain a clinical workload by performing and reporting highly specialist and complex clinical cardiac investigations.
• Responsibility for Policy/Service Development for functional assessments and inherited cardiac conditions.
• Responsible for service development, ensuring that high quality patient centred services are based on the best available evidence and be a driving force in the development of a protocol driven service.
• To be aware of and implement the Trust and Cardiology guidelines with respect to Health and Safety

Please see job description document for full responsibilities.