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In January this year I went for breakfast with Karl O’Higgins from Planmeca.

He said it would take about two hours and it took four and he got a parking ticket. We had planted seeds all over the place.

In summer, as a result of one of the seeds that was planted, I went to Planmeca in Helsinki and met with loads and loads of really talented and inspirational people – one of which was Juha, who I wrote about in an earlier blog who was the physicist from Planmeca.

As a result of the seeds planted in Helsinki and the discussions that were had, I changed my CBCT machine (as much for ethical reasons as for anything else) and Juha came across to collect some data from my existing machine, my new machine and two other machines we managed to organise access to.

Today I had a conversation with Juha on the telephone (I have had many over the past few weeks).

The result of the seeds planted with Karl O’Higgins in January and in Helsinki in the summer and a few weeks ago when the CBCT machine was removed and the hassle of trying to get stuff organised and measured will be outstanding and unbelievable I think.

While this is a little bit of a teaser and I don’t want to give too much away, the effective dose measurements on individual machines and where that will take us going forwards and how we can expand CBCT in multiple new treatment modalities for the benefit of patients long term, even on a potential population scale has already been discussed and is totally incredible.

This is just another seed and today’s conversation is another seedling. I have forgotten about all the ones I planted in the past that never grew into anything but what I’ve learned through this process, the knowledge I’ve gained and how it’s moved me along has been extraordinary and I would never have imagined this on an early morning in January 2018 when I was off work.

CBCT will change from here and the discussions, particularly for certain suppliers of this, will become quite uncomfortable.

This information has gone to the top of Planemeca, right to the very top, and that’s a big company. They will be able to tell a story and a message which will poke a stick at even bigger companies.

None of the credit will come back to a breakfast meeting in Nottingham in 2018 but at least some of it started there.

These projects are never the result of one individual conversation or one individual’s inspiration or one individual’s perspiration but I, and we, are a small piece in this jigsaw and at least today, for one day, I feel like I made a difference.

Blog Post Number: 1848