Theme : “ I blink therefore I am: AI and medicine”

Barry Kelly is a professor at Ulster University’s new Graduate Entry Medical School. He qualified in 1984 and initially trained in surgery (about which time he still gets disturbing flashbacks) in Belfast and Glasgow before switching to radiology.  He returned to Glasgow in 1993 to undertake a research MD before his appointment at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast in 1995.

In 2010 he became editor of the Ulster Medical Journal where he took impish delight in crafting his increasingly idiosyncratic editorials, a habit with which he persists in the Royal College of Radiologists’ Newsletter. In 2012, he became Dean of the Faculty of Radiologists, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He has served as Northern Ireland’s Radiology Training Programme Director, Regional Advisor, RCR Board member, Senior Lecturer and Reader in Queen’s University Belfast School of Medicine.

His work within the European Society of Radiology, led to collaboration with the World Health Organisation and International Atomic Energy Agency but most importantly in the European radiology examinations. He has also examined in the Irish and UK Radiology Fellowship examinations and is currently the senior external examiner in Dublin. ‘Examinations’ he claims, ‘might seem about as much fun as root canal treatment, but they do acknowledge achieving a high professional standard which should be reassuring for both the patient and her doctor.’

Barry completed a Philosophy MA in September 2021. A passionate advocate for the notion of the interconnectability of all ideas, disciplines and learning, he agrees with Isaac Asimov who wrote that the most important phrase in science, if not in life, isn’t ‘Eureka!’ but ‘Hmmm, that’s funny….’