Dr. John Allen

Clinical Scientist

Email: john.allen@nuth.nhs.uk

Telephone: +44 (0)191 233 6161 x26667
and also 21- 38199 direct dial

Address: 

Microvascular Diagnostics
c/o Department of Nuclear Medicine
NCCC at Freeman Hospital
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE7 7DN
United Kingdom

Current Appointments:

A) Clinical Scientist - principal grade, Regional Medical Physics Department, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne 1989+ (National Health Service, NHS).

Responsible for clinical microvascular and thermal diagnostic patient services at Freeman Hospital. Main research role is this field of medicine. State-of-the-art facility at Freeman Hospital holds technologies for microvascular assessment, including capillaroscopy, thermal imaging, laser Doppler, transcutaneous PO2, multi-site photoplethysmography, spectrophotometry, tissue oxygen, fluorescence spectroscopy and objective tissue colour spectrophotometry.

The service provides assessments of patients with connective tissue disease, Raynaud's phenomenon, autonomic dysfunction, renal fistula, complex regional pain syndrome, thermoregulation in chronic fatigue, vascular disease, microvascular disorders, diabetes, angiogenesis, and conditions secondary to cancer and haematological disorders. Vascular optics facility will be developed for cancer diagnostics and optical therapies using new technologies.

B) Honorary Lectureship in Medical Physics, Newcastle University

• Associate Honorary Fellow of the Medical School, Newcastle University.
• Internal examiner / assessor, Newcastle University for MD, MRes, MPhys and BSc degrees. Responsible for the supervision of student projects.
• Visiting professorship and PhD supervisor, Biofisica Medica, Universidad de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, from 2007.
• External PhD examiner, Nottingham University.
• International Advisory Board: Physiological Measurement: IoP. Jan 2008+.
• Faculty for European Course: Capillaroscopy and Rheumatic Diseases, Italy.
• Faraday Lecturer, IET, 2007+.
• Science and Engineering Embassador, Northumberland SETPOINT, 2007+.
• Electronics specialist group team leader of IET Northumbria Branch Committee, 2001-to date. Role includes organising the annual lecture programme. Here, medical lectures for 2004/5 session were "Virtual Reality" and "Surgical Robotics", "Nanotechnology" 2005/6, "Light interaction with tissue" 2006/7 session, and "Medical Thermal Imaging" 2007/8. 2008/9 is Advances in MRI - from Physics to Medical Application.

Recent Awards and Achievements:

Submitted, on behalf of CVPRG, the winning entries for the 2006 National Health Service Health and Social Care Award for Innovative Technology and the 2007 Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine Manufacturers' Award. Both awards stemmed from my vascular optical pulse diagnostics research.

Also, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Innovation in Practice category winner: "Development of a clinical microvascular measurement service", 2006. It was an honour to be invited to join Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair at a Reception in London's Lancaster House (June 2007) - in recognition of those "delivering excellence in Public Services".

Qualifications:

• 2002 Ph.D. Thesis: The measurement and analysis of multi-site photoplethysmographic pulse waveforms in health and arterial disease, Newcastle University, December 2002.

• 1989 MSc., Bioengineering, Strathclyde University, Glasgow.

• 1988 CDipAF, Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance (ACCA), Leicester.

• 1985 BEng. (Hons), Control Engineering. 2:1. Sheffield University.

Membership of Professional Societies:

• Health Professions Council. Registered Clinical Scientist, (1999+).
• Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (MIPEM, 1992).
• Chartered Scientist (CSci), Science Council.
• Chartered Engineer (CEng), Engineering Council.
• Member of Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
• European and British Microcirculation Societies.
• UK Thermography Association.
• SPIE Optical Society.
• Afiliate of IEEE Biomedical Engineering Society.

Funding:

Grant funding from the Freeman Trustees Charitable Trust and the CFS/ME Northern Network.

Selected publications:

• Allen J, Murray A. Development of a neural network screening aid for diagnosing lower limb peripheral vascular disease from photoelectric plethysmography pulse waveforms. Physiol Meas 1993; 14:13-22.

• Allen J, Murray A. Prospective assessment of an artificial neural network for the detection of peripheral vascular disease from lower limb pulse waveforms. Physiol Meas 1995; 16:29-38

• Allen J, Oates CP, Henderson J, Jago J, Whittingham TA, Chamberlain J, Jones NAG, Murray A. Comparison of lower limb arterial assessments using color-duplex ultrasound and ankle/brachial pressure index measurements. Angiology 1996; 47:225-232

• Allen J, Murray A. Similarity in bilateral photoplethysmographic peripheral pulse wave characteristics at the ears, thumbs and toes. Physiol Meas 2000;21:369-377

• Allen J, Murray A. Variability of photoplethysmography peripheral pulse measurements at the ears, thumbs and toes. IEE Proceedings: Science, Measurement and Technology, Special Issue on Advances in Medical Signal Processing. 2000; 147:403-407

• O'Sullivan J, Allen J, Murray A. The forgotten Korotkoff phases: how often are phases II and III present and how do they relate to the other Korotkoff phases? Am J Hypertens 2002;15:264-268

• Allen J, Frame JR, Murray A. Microvascular blood flow and skin temperature changes in the fingers following a deep inspiratory gasp. Physiol Meas 2002;23:365-373

• Allen J, Murray A. Age-related changes in peripheral pulse timing characteristics at the ears, fingers and toes. J Human Hypertension 2002;16:711-717

• McLaren AT, Allen J, Murray A, Ballard CG, Kenny RA. Cardiovascular effects of Donepezil in patients with dementia. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders 2003; 15:183-188

• Allen J, Gehrke T, O'Sullivan JJ, King ST, Murray A. Characterization of the Korotkoff sounds using joint time-frequency analysis. Physiol Meas 2004;25:107-117

• Allen J, Murray A. Effects of filtering on multi-site photoplethysmography pulse waveform characteristics. Computers in Cardiology 2004; 31:485-488

• Langley P, Allen J, Bowers E, Drinnan M, Garcia E, King ST, Olbrich T, Sims AJ, Smith FE, Wild J, Zheng D, Murray A. Analysis of RR Interval and Fibrillation Frequency and Amplitude for Predicting Spontaneous Termination of Atrial Fibrillation. Computers in Cardiology 2004; 31: 637-640

• McLaren A, Kerr S, Allan L, Steen IN, Ballard C, Allen J, Murray A, Kenny R. Autonomic function is impaired in elderly stroke survivors. Stroke 2005;36:1026-1030

• Allen J, Oates CP, Lees TA, Murray A. Photoplethysmography detection of lower limb peripheral occlusive arterial disease: a comparison of pulse timing, amplitude and shape characteristics. Physiol Meas 2005;26:811-821

• Zheng D, Allen J, Murray A. Effect of external cuff pressure on arterial compliance. Computers in Cardiology 2005;32:315-318

• Smith FE, Haigh A, Wild J, Bowers EJ, King ST, Allen J, Zheng D, Langley P, Murray A. Study of the causes of blood pressure variability during manual sphygmomanometer measurement. IFMBE Proc 2005;9:95-96

• Allen J, Oates CP, Chishti AD, Schaefer G, Zhu SY, Ahmed IAM, Talbot D, Murray A. Renal fistula assessment using automated thermal imaging. In: IFMBE Proceedings 2005;11:3122-3126

• Allan LM, Kerr SRJ, Ballard CG, Allen J, Murray A, McLaren AT, Kenny RA. Autonomic function assessed by heart rate variability is normal in Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders 2005;19:140-144

• Langley P, Allen J, Bowers EJ, Drinnan MJ, Haigh AJ, King ST, Olbrich T, Smith FE, Zheng D, Murray A. The ebb and flow of heart rate variability: simulation of 24 hour heart rate time series data from naturally occurring phenomena. Computer in Cardiology 2005;32:973-976

• Newton JL, Allen J, Kerr S, Jones DEJ. Reduced heart rate variability and baroreflex sensitivity in primary biliary cirrhosis. Liver International 2006;26:197-202

• Allen J, Oates CP, Chishti AD, Ahmed IAM, Talbot D, Murray A. Thermography and colour duplex ultrasound assessments of arterio-venous fistula function in renal patients. Physiol Meas 2006;27:51-60

• Allen J, Overbeck K, Stansby G, Murray A. Photoplethysmography assessments in cardiovascular disease. Measurement and Control 2006;39(3):80-83

• Kumar N, Griffiths B, Allen J. Thermographic and symptomatic effect of a single dose of sildenafil citrate on Raynaud's phenomenon in patients with systemic sclerosis: a potential treatment. J Rheumatol 2006;33:1918-9

• Allen J, Kokkinos EM, Murray A, Diffey BL, Mokhtary SL, Meggitt SJ, Harrison DK, Walker K, Isaacs JD, Pathare S, Griffiths B. Assessment of skin fluorescence characteristics in systemic sclerosis. Rheumatology 2006;44 (Supplement 1):i149 (Abstract from British Society for Rheumatology, Glasgow 2006).

• Agarwal S, Allen J, Murray A, Purcell I. Impaired systemic microvascular endothelial function with coronary artery disease can be detected non-invasively using novel laser Doppler techniques. Heart 2006;92 (Supplement 2):A80-A81 (Abstract from British Cardiac Society, Glasgow 2006).

• Allan LM, Ballard CG, Allen J, Murray A, Davison AW, McKeith IG, Kenny RA. Autonomic dysfunction in dementia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2007;78:671-7

• D Zheng, Allen J, Murray A. Non-invasive in vivo assessment of changes in peripheral arterial properties with estimation of arterial volume compliance. Physiol Meas 2007;28:1317-27
  

• Allen J. Topical Review: Photoplethysmography and its application in clinical physiological measurement.Physiol Meas 2007;28:R1-39

• Allen J, Overbeck K, Nath A F, Murray A, Stansby G. A prospective comparison of bilateral photoplethysmography versus the ankle-brachial pressure index for detecting and quantifying lower limb peripheral arterial disease. J Vasc Surg 2008;47:794-802

Selected recent scientific presentations:

• Allen J, Frame J, Murray A. Respiratory induced peripheral vasoconstriction detected by finger photoplethysmography. Measurement & Modelling of Autonomic Function, British Institute of Radiology, London, March 2006.

• Allen J. Experiences in the development of a medical thermal imaging facility. FLIR Systems Annual User Group Conference, National Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham, 2006 and 2007.

• Allen J. Capillaroscopy in healthy subjects: materials and methods. 2nd European Course, Capillaroscopy and Rheumatic Diseases, Genova, Italy, September 2006.

• Allen J. Introducing optical-based lower limb tissue oxygen saturation amputation level assessments at the Northern Vascular Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne. Cambridge Amputee Rehabilitation Meeting 2006. Cambridge University, October 2006.

• Allen J, Stevens S, Murray A, Newton J. Research Proposal: Multi-site pulse assessment of postural vasomotor reflexes in chronic fatigue syndrome. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and ME Northern Clinical Network, 2006 Regional Conference, Newcastle upon Tyne, December 2006.

• Allen J. Capillaroscopy in Newcastle: Clinical experiences and research potential. Workshop on Capillary Imaging in the Connective Tissue Diseases, Birmingham, January 2007.

• Milborrow GA, Murray A, Allen J, Purcell IF. Novel laser Doppler assessment of microvascular endothelial function correlates with body mass index. American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Meeting, New Orleans, US, March 2007.

• Allen J. Improving diagnosis - microvascular imaging techniques. Clinical Insights: Pulmonary arterial hypertension, scleroderma and vasculopathy, Durham University, Durham, March 2007.

• Allen J. A review of photoplethysmography and its application in clinical physiological measurement. 3rd Annual Meeting on Optical Sensors in Physiological Measurements. The Institute of Physics, London, May 2007.

• Allen J. Capillaroscopy: Research and clinical practice. Department of Medicine, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore, July 2007.

• Allen J. Microvascular optical assessments in CFS/ME - a new way of looking at things. Medical Research for CFS/ME. County Hall, Durham City, September 2007.

• Allen J, Overbeck K, Murray A, Stansby G. Quantitative bilateral photoplethysmography for peripheral arterial disease detection: a prospective assessment. Vascular Society Meeting, Manchester, November 2007.

• Allen J. What's new in the world of biophotonics? Feedback from the 2008 SPIE Photonics West Conference. British Medical Laser Association 2008 Annual Meeting, Centre for Life, Newcastle upon Tyne, June 2008.

• Allen J. Capillaroscopy: Materials and Methods. 3rd EULAR Course on Capillaroscopy in the Rheumatic Diseases, Genoa, Italy, September 2008.
  

Some useful links and information to download:

• The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust main page
• Regional Medical Physics Department RMPD and diagnostic services. The 2006/7 Biennial report can be obtained from the site.
  
• Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine IPEM.
• The IET main page
• SPIE main page
• Science and Engineering Ambassadors Programme link
• Newcastle University Homepage
• Newcastle Biomedicine main page
• The NHS home page
• BBC News Front Page Health pages
• Raynaud's and Scleroderma Association main page
• Arthritis Research Campaign (ARC) main page
• Microvascular studies a general patient information leaflet is available for downloading (right click and save target as) the leaflet.

Last update 20/10/2008