Andrew Beavis

Prof Andrew W Beavis has worked in the NHS, as a clinical Radiotherapy Physicist, since 1992 having gained a PhD and undertaken a subsequent Research Associates post at Newcastle University in Solid State Physics. He is currently a Consultant Medical Physicist also holding a Visiting Professorship at Sheffield-Hallamshire University and Hon. Professorship at the University of Hull. His ‘Day Job’ is the Head of Medical Physics in the Hull and East Yorkshire Trust where he leads a department of approximately 100 scientists and technicians and continues to develop research and development links with University colleagues.

He is also Founder and Director of Vertual Ltd which manufacturers a Virtual Environment for Radiotherapy Training (VERT) which he invented/ developed with two Computer Scientists from the University of Hull. This ‘flight simulator’ evolved from a joint interest in producing better and novel ways to educate and train clinical professionals to address the slow uptake in the UK of new technology used in the treatment of cancer by radiation. This gained early success in 2007 having gained the attention of the then ‘Cancer Czar’ and the Professional Bodies associated with Radiotherapy. VERT has changed national philosophy and policy on radiotherapy training in England and is used by every student who trains as a Therapy Radiographer in England as a standard part of the national curriculum. It has also now been adopted in over 20 countries internationally; there are over 125 installations worldwide of VERT as of June 2017.

Vertual Ltd has developed from an NHS/ University Spin-out to a successful business that currently employs 12 people based in Hull and is expanding in order to build its current product range.

In 2009 he was awarded the Department of Health’s Healthcare Science Award for Innovation and Invention for his work in developing VERT and introducing VR training into routine use in Oncology. In 2014 he was listed as one of the ‘100 Leading Practising Scientists’ in the UK by the UK Science Council and in 2015 was listed in AC Blacks publication ‘Who’s Who’.