Bash bash bash – It almost fits perfectly now. College of Radiographers 39th Welbeck Memorial Lecture

This paper outlines The College of Radiographers 39th Welbeck Memorial Eponymous Lecture presented at United Kingdom Radiological Congress in 2010. The presentation considered the future of radiography practice and how that future might be influenced. The presentation was structured into 4 sections: approaches to predicting the future; use of imaging techniques and technologies; 2025 - our future; a roadmap to our future. With an emphasis on the business sector the first section considers traditional and creative ways of predicting the future; some examples of predicting the future are taken from radiography. Using specific examples from radiographic practice the second section attempts to determine whether imaging technologies and radiography techniques are optimised and whether clinical decision making is based upon research evidence. In this section consideration is also given to the temporal relationship between the introduction of new equipment, the research that supports its use and the skills required to work with it. The third section is short and it contains general predictions about what 2025 may look like. The final section proposes briefly how the radiographic profession might move forward into the future we would wish to exist.