RAF radar technology led Ian to discover life-saving ultrasound

HAVING an ultrasound is one of the least intrusive and straightforward medical procedures around.

We’re probably most familiar with an obstetric ultrasound, which examines pregnant women and their babies.

But the medical ultrasound is used to check everything from tendons and muscles to blood vessels and internal organs.

Yet it was only in 1958 that British obstetrician Ian Donald made the breakthrough of using ultrasound for medical diagnosis.

Born in Cornwall in 1910, he served with distinction in the RAF’s medical branch during the war, where he became familiar with sonar and radar.

Appointed the University of Glasgow’s Regius chair of Midwifery, Donald began investigating sonar use for medical diagnosis.

Ridiculed at first, when a large ovarian cyst was diagnosed in a patient, he was taken seriously.

Donald’s breakthrough was to prove personally invaluable years later. Selfdiagnosing a heart condition that would require three major surgeries.

He was given a fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians, just before his death on June 19, 1987.