Donna Holdcroft

What is my inspiration to get out of bed in the morning?

Working as an Ultrasound Application Specialist for over 12 years has been a demanding role. I started life as a Radiographer in the NHS and moved into Ultrasound in the early 1990s. I had always wanted to work in this branch of Imaging and once I was getting my “feet under the table” I realised how exciting ultrasound was and how much I loved to teach others both within my own profession and other professions.

Some people think of working in Industry as being on the “Dark” side – I still feel that I contribute to patient care by assisting others to get the most out of their equipment and also train them to use new and up and coming technologies.

 I never feel bored as each day is different and challenging. I travel a lot  and meet so many different people and always try my hardest to make sure that they are happy with their equipment and all the different ways that they can use the various technologies the optimise their image according to application and patient type. I feel blessed that I get to learn about new technologies as they come onto the market so I always feel that I am working at the cutting edge and I love teaching others about these exciting features and how they fit into the patient care pathway.

There is one part of my job that gets me really excited and make all the travel worthwhile - this is when you optimise the image on a really difficult patient on a difficult area of the body to image – an image that makes a confident diagnosis is so satisfiying! I continually get amazed by the extra detail we can now see on ultrasound when these new technologies are applied and all the different applications ultrasound is expanding into because of the progress being made in this field.   

Life is not always easy – for some people they prefer the images of the manufacturer of the system they are used to using – everyone has their own opinion and this needs to be respected. As long as I can leave the department at the end of the day feeling that I have made the customers happier with their images then I am happy too. I feel that my job is to make the Customers life easier and as long as I am doing that then I feel satisfied with my days work.