Story So Far

History

The Society of Anaesthetists in Radiology was founded in 2011, by Dr Michael Boscoe, from Harefield Hospital, along with  Mary Newton from Queen Square, Jane Herod from GOSH, Shane George from Harefield, Nick Woodward from the Royal Free and later James Noblet from The London. 

The founders perceived a need to address the needs of those working in radiology, with its particular features of being based in remote labs but with evermore complex patients. It became clear that interventional radiology was a fast-developing specialty often treating patients who were unfit to undergo conventional surgery, or worse, had conditions where there was no surgical solution. The support of anaesthetists who were prepared to learn the additional skills to enable safe progress of often “novel procedures” was essential. 

The first SAR Annual Scientific Meeting was held as a half-day session on 10 November 2011 at the Institute of Child Health, with meetings happening every 12-18 months since. The meetings have been immensely successful and have generally followed a format of joint presentations of anaesthetists, radiologists and surgeons covering a topic highlighting their respective contributions to successful patient outcomes. 

In the past 15 years, SAR developed to provide educational resources, regular communications all year round, in addition to the Annual Scientific Meeting. Through these channels, SAR has played an important role in bringing together clinicians with an interest in anaesthesia within radiology. 

The new BSIR Anaesthesia Special Interest Committee

In 2026, the SAR leadership and the British Society of Interventional Radiology (BSIR) began to consider how best to support and develop the future of anaesthesia within radiology. Following extensive discussion and evaluation of the available options, the SAR Committee concluded that the strongest long-term future for SAR is to become a Special Interest Committee (SIC) of BSIR.

By becoming a BSIR Special Interest Committee, the group will have access to the BSIR staff team, greater organisational support, infrastructure and resources, allowing the clinicians on the Committee to focus on delivering meaningful activity rather than administration.

This change will create opportunities to:

• Increase the scope and scale of educational, professional and research activity.
• Benefit from support from the BSIR team in areas such as governance, events, communications, membership administration and project delivery.
• Strengthen collaboration between anaesthetists, radiologists, nurses, radiographers and other members of the multidisciplinary IR team.
• Develop standards, guidance and best practice for anaesthetic services within interventional radiology.
• Explore data collection, audit and quality improvement opportunities that help strengthen the evidence base for practice.

Most importantly, by working together more closely, we will be better positioned to improve consistency of care and drive improvements in patient outcomes across the UK.

BSIR is excited to welcome the SAR community in to BSIR and is committed to building on the history of this exceptional society.