Professor left brilliant legacy as pioneer in use of MRI scanners

PROFESSOR Francis Smith, the pioneer of diagnostic Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and a former Dundee United doctor, has died aged 79.

He applied how the MRI scanner, developed in Aberdeen by Professor John Mallard and Dr Jim Hutchison, could be used in a diagnostic clinical setting.

The breakthrough led to faster clinical examination and more accurate diagnoses of cancer.

He was born in Essex to radiologist William (Bill) Smith and his wife Marianne.

In the 1950s, the family moved to what was then Southern Rhodesia.

At 20 he went to Aberdeen University to study medicine and, in 1969, began work as a junior house doctor at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and continued to practise for almost 40 years.

Shortly after, he met his future wife, Pamela, a senior nursing sister in accident and emergency at the hospital and the pair married in 1970.

His daughter, Jane Allan said: “My dad started the world’s first clinical trial of MRI in 1980 and the world’s first diagnostic MRI service at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in 1981.’’

Between 1980 and 1991 he worked in collaboration with a number of clinicians globally, exploring the applications of MRI, being first to show the potential of MRI to the examination of the abdomen and pelvis as well as for the study of pregnancy.

By the late 1980s, nearly 2,000 MRI scanners were in use worldwide.

He finished his NHS career at Woodend Hospital and started working at Medserena in Kensington, London.

He became club doctor at Montrose, Dundee United and then Peterhead. With the recent global disruption due to COVID he left Medserena in London and joined the ROC private clinic at Westhill.

Professor Smith is survived by his wife, Pamela, children Jane and James, grandsons Max, 22, Theo, 14, and Sebastian, 6.

Professor Francis Smith led a medical breakthrough.