Professor Amaka Offiah BSc, MBBS, MRCP, FRCR, PhD, FRCPCH

Chair in Paediatric Musculoskeletal Radiology

The optimisation of current techniques and development of novel methods of imaging the paediatric musculoskeletal system

Tel: +44 (0)114 271 7557
Fax: +44 (0) 114 275 5364
Email: a.offiah@sheffield.ac.uk

Amaka trained as a radiologist in Sheffield, then joined the Institute of Child Health / Great Ormond Street Hospital in 2000 as a clinical research fellow. In 2005 she was awarded a University of London PhD for her thesis, “Optimisation of the digital radiographic imaging of suspected non-accidental injury”.

Returning to Sheffield in 2009 when she was awarded a Higher Education Funding Council of England Clinical Senior Lecturer position, Amaka is conducting research related to the paediatric musculoskeletal system.  She was promoted to Chair in January 2020, at which time she was only the second recorded black (African) female professor in medicine in the UK.

Amaka’s main research interest lies in the imaging of suspected child abuse and skeletal dysplasias and in methods of determining which children have fragile bones prone to fracture and which do not. More specifically, she is concentrating on the optimisation of current techniques and development of novel methods of distinguishing brittle from normal bones, in understanding the mechanisms of accidental injury in infants and young children and in improving the detection and dating of the subtle fractures seen in abuse. Other areas of research relate to optimising the diagnosis of vertebral fractures and investigating the role of artificial intelligence in detecting musculoskeletal pathology in children.

Amaka is currently Faculty Director for Wellbeing, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Chair of the University of Sheffield BAME Staff Network, Chair of the Skeletal Dysplasia Group for Teaching and Research, Chair of the European Society of Paediatric Radiologists’ Child Abuse Taskforce and Publications Committees and was the Royal College of Radiology 2013 Roentgen Professor – being the first female and first paediatric radiologist to receive this award.

On 1 November 2021, Amaka took up the Managing Editor role (Europe and outside the US) for the journal Paediatric Radiology – the only journal dedicated to imaging in children. She is the first female and BAME individual to be an editor for the journal in its 48-year history.

View Amaka Offiah’s academic profile

View Amaka Offiah’s Publications