To hear a recording of this lecture: 

The famous detective Mr Sherlock Holmes is feeling unwell. The tables are turned and his constant companion, Dr Watson, is left to investigate. Dr Watson practices medicine in the usual way – with stethoscopes, blood pressure measurements, blood samples and professional skill.  But his patient, Mr Holmes, has a range of health problems which are mostly beyond these simple methods. In each lecture Dr Watson will invite his patient to undergo a series of more complex investigations. These will be conducted by his medical physics colleagues. 

In The Case of the Heavy Heart, Mr Holmes’s heart and blood vessels (the cardiovascular system) will be investigated by methods involving direct applications of science to medicine –sound (Doppler ultrasound), heat (infrared radiation imaging), radioactivity and electrical signals present on the skin surface. How do we investigate the inside of the body from measurements made outside? Can these tests reveal why the patient feels unwell and is there a health message for him?   

The Medical Physics Team 

This series of lectures will be provided by a team of scientists and technologists from the north’s Regional Medical Physics Department. Their centre is in Freeman Hospital, but staff provide services in 12 hospitals from Newcastle down to Middlesbrough and across to Carlisle and Whitehaven. They also contribute to District, dental and GP services, and have a strong base at Newcastle University in the Institute of Cellular Medicine and its Cardiovascular Physics and Engineering Research Group. They hope that the excitement and challenges of providing scientific solutions for our National Health Service will be communicated and felt in these lectures and demonstrations.