My name is Dr Katerina Dailiani and I am a Consultant Radiologist with a special interest in Breast Imaging.
I graduated from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Medical School in my home country Greece in 2004. After serving 2 years as a Foundation Doctor in rural Greece, I had my post-graduate core training in Diagnostic Radiology at the University Hospital of Heraklion, where I qualified in Radiology Specialty in 2013.
I then worked for a couple of years as a consultant general radiologist in Greece, before relocating to the UK in 2016.
In 2018 I completed my Breast Fellowship at the Nightingale Centre Breast Care Unit in Manchester and after that I took up my current role at Guy’s and St Thomas’ London and Western Sussex Foundation Trusts, where I split my daily clinical duties between Symptomatic and Screening Breast work respectively.
During clinics I perform the diagnostic and interventional work-up of patients in the context of triple assessment in symptomatic cases and imaging assessment in patients recalled from Screening Mammography. Interventions vary from core biopsies and Fine-Needle-Aspirations to Vacuum Assisted Biopsies either under US or stereotactic guidance and imaging guided localisations prior to surgery. The rest of my clinical duties include Mammography Screen reading, breast MRI and some amount of Oncologic cross-sectional reporting.
I take part in our weekly MDT meetings across the two sites, either as an attendee or case presenter, providing thus the radiology input in the patient pathway and decision management.
My role does not involve on-call work and I have only minimal out-of-hours commitments, which has a positive effect on my work versus personal time balance.
Interaction with patients takes place on a daily basis and is an integral part of this role and is what -in my opinion- makes it fascinating, as it provides a fulfilling effect of having a direct impact on patient care. Besides the clinic setting, another aspect of this includes giving results to patients, in a more consultation-like context. The latter can sometimes be emotionally challenging but is also a great way of building rapport with patients.
As I have a great interest in teaching, I am able to work closely with trainees and provide mentoring and support towards their development.
Last but not least, Breast Care is all about team work and this is the key element in overcoming the heavy workload and meeting the highly demanding targets, which are always a challenge.