Inside story: The hi-tech world of Radiographers
1 Video View·Sep 21, 2026
Technology that can see inside people’s bodies – sounds a bit sci-fi, but this is the domain of Radiographers who use some brilliant technology to work out what’s causing illness and also to treat people with cancer.
Our reporter, Anne went behind the scenes to find out what Diagnostic Radiographers and Therapeutic Radiographers do.
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Video Summary
AI GeneratedAnne explores the field of radiography, discovering the distinct roles of diagnostic and therapeutic radiographers. She learns how diagnostic teams use imaging tools like X-rays and CT scans to identify illnesses, while therapeutic radiographers utilize high-energy radiation and proton therapy to treat cancer by targeting malignant cells.
Hi, I'm Anne and I'm here to see the radiography team today.
All I know is that they use x-rays, so let's go and find out more.
So what are you doing here?
Today we've just done a chest x-ray of this patient.
Can you tell me what I can see here?
These are her two lungs and this is the patient's heart.
This is air in her stomach.
If there's something wrong, usually we write a red dot
and then we call up the doctors to let them know.
We're going to do a scan of your chest today.
So Tom, you're a diagnostic radiographer. What does that mean?
So our job is to create images of patients
with potentially illnesses or serious life-threatening conditions.
So you've got loads of cool equipment here.
Can you tell me a bit more about it?
So this is a CT scanner.
It uses x-rays to create 3D pictures of patients.
We also use x-rays, magnets, as well as ultrasounds.
What surprised you the most about your role?
I was not aware that we had to go to theatre
as part of our job to help out with broken bones and things like this.
Thank you, Tom. So now I'm going to see the therapeutic radiography team.
Enjoy. Bye.
I was with the diagnostic radiographers.
You're a therapeutic radiographer. What's the difference?
So a diagnostic radiographer is more about the imaging of patients
and a therapeutic radiographer is the treatment mainly of cancer patients
and we use high-energy x-rays to deliver that treatment.
So you can use radiotherapy to treat cancer.
Can you tell me how that works?
It's high-energy radiation, so it can penetrate the skin.
Radiation that we give is absorbed by the body.
The normal cells have the ability to repair from the damage,
whereas cancer cells don't have the ability to repair from that damage.
We're really lucky in this department to have proton therapy
opening in 2020, but also the Christie's in Manchester have it
and they're already up and running.
So I've learned so much today.
I didn't realise there were two different radiographer roles
and how varied they played out.