Contact details

Professor Tom Bourne Ph.D., FRCOG

Visiting Professor
Department of Surgery & Cancer

Early pregnancy and acute gynaec
Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology
Hammersmith Campus

Tel: +44 (0)20 8383 5131
Email:

Professor Tom Bourne

Tom Bourne is visiting Professor at Imperial College London and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. He has an H-index of 35. He is a consultant gynaecologist at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital London. Until September 2008 he was Consultant Gynaecologist at St George’s Hospital, in South London, and Reader in acute gynaecology and gynaecological ultrasound at St George's University of London. At St Georges for many years he ran both the diagnostic and surgical aspects of the early pregnancy assessment unit and the acute gynaecology service. He was also responsible for a number of “one stop” problem orientated clinics, including specific clinics for women with menorrhagia, bleeding after the menopause, pelvic pain and possible ovarian cysts. He is an RCOG preceptor in laparoscopic and hysteroscopic surgery as well as the use of ultrasound in the management of gynaecological pathology.

He trained in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at St Mary’s Manchester and Gloucester. He also worked on the neonatal unit in Oxford before working as a research fellow and finally lecturer and senior registrar at Kings College Hospital, London. At Kings he set up many aspects of and for five years ran the gynaecological ultrasound and ovarian cancer screening service where he introduced the used of vaginal ultrasonography and colour Doppler into the clinic. In 1994 he moved to Sahlgrenska Hospital at the University of Göteborg in Sweden on a Swedish Medical Research Council visiting scientist fellowship. In Sweden he initiated research into ovarian function and extended his experience of gynaecological ultrasound with Seth Granberg. However the main purpose of this move was to train in laparoscopic and hysteroscopic (keyhole) surgery. He wrote his Ph.D. on aspects of the early detection of ovarian and endometrial carcinoma. Following this he furthered his surgical training working with Olav Istre in Norway and Jan Deprest in Belgium before returning to the UK.

He was appointed as a consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at St George's in 1996. He obtained the MRCOG in 1990 and was made FRCOG in 2003. He was conferred the title of Reader in acute gynaecology and gynaecological ultrasonography at St George's University of London in 2005. After collaborating for many years as the "London-Leuven" research group he was appointed as Professor, at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium in 2007 and he has medical registration to practice in Belgium. In September 2008 he left St Georges in order to continue to pursue his clinical and research interests with the University Hospital of Leuven whilst taking up a post with Imperial College and at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea hospital.

He has edited six books, published over 200 papers in international journals and been invited to speak and chair at numerous international meetings on subjects relating to the use of ultrasound and diagnostics in gynaecology. He is on the scientific committee and the Board of the international society for ultrasound in obstetrics and gynaecology (ISUOG), and is a medical advisor and trustee of the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust. He was a board member of the association of early pregnancy units (AEPU) up to 2011. He is a member of the medical research council (MRC) panel of experts. He is an expert advisor to NICE on early pregnancy complications. He is a member of the RCOG ultrasound training committee and runs the advanced gynaecological ultrasound courses at the RCOG. He sits on the steering committee of the International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA), the International Endometrial assessment trial (IETA) and the International Pregnancy of Unknown Location Analysis (IPULA) trials. His current research interests relate to miscarriage, the management and psychology of early pregnancy complications, early pregnancy embryonic growth, caesarean section scars, the diagnosis of ovarian cancer and the characterization of ovarian pathology. He has ongoing collaborations with staff at the Universities of Leuven, Nottingham, Cambridge, Penn State, Edinburgh, Sydney and others. 

Selected Publications