About us.

We bring together leading clinical experts and world-class imaging scientists to revolutionise the planning of surgical and transcatheter cardiac procedures.

XRnostics Ltd. is an exciting, innovative spinout company born out of a world-class research collaboration between King's College London and Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. We bring together leading clinical experts and world-class imaging scientists to revolutionise education, training and the planning of cardiac procedures using immersive imaging.

Our mission is to pioneer advanced virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) solutions for hospital sites within the UK and across Europe, medical device companies, and the medical education sector. We are currently expanding our international, diverse team with talented and motivated engineers looking for meaningful, long-term career prospects.

XRnostics Ltd. was born out of a research collaboration between King’s College London and Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Board of Directors

Charlie Buckwell

Executive Chairman to the Board of Directors

  • Charlie Buckwell is a seasoned business leader with >35 years of experience spanning the global pharma industry and life sciences professional services.

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  • Charlie’s career includes >20 years of successfully leading senior teams, with proven ability to innovate, collaborate, and deliver impactful outcomes in complex and highly regulated environments. Charlie has led the development and scale-up of high-performing multidisciplinary teams, driven organisational transformation and digital innovation, built award-winning capabilities, and championed an inclusive, purpose-driven culture.

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    In his last full-time role, he was an Executive Leadership Team member at IPG Health, and previously Chief Executive of McCann Health Medical Communications. Alongside his appointment as Executive Chair of XRnostics, Charlie is now engaged on a portfolio of senior advisory, executive and non-executive roles across life sciences, healthcare and medtech businesses, helping to support growth, innovation and fostering supportive work environments where people can thrive and excel.

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    He holds an MBA from Lancaster Management School, where he focused on best practice strategy development and effective intervention in complex organizational systems.

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    Linked In profile:

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliebuckwell‍ ‍

Professor John Simpson

Founder Director and Board Member,  Joint Chief Medical Officer

  • Professor Simpson leads the paediatric echocardiography service at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital. He has a particular interest in advanced ultrasound imaging of the heart and is lead author of joint US/European guidelines on 3D echocardiography of congenital heart disease.

  • He is regarded as an authority on the diagnosis and treatment of heart conditions in babies and young children and has published over 300 peer reviewed publications, including imaging of catheter and surgical interventions. He has delivered training courses on 3D imaging to hundreds of cardiologists to improve care. Professor Simpson was President of the British Congenital Cardiac Association between 2019 and 2021.

Professor Julia Schnabel

Founder Director and Board Member, Chief Scientific Officer

  • Professor Schnabel is Chair of Computational Imaging at the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London. She has 30 years’ experience in developing computational imaging solutions, with a focus on multi-modality imaging for cardiovascular diseases.

  • Julia holds a PhD in Computer Science from University College London (1998), and a Diplom (MSc equivalent) in Informatics from the Technical University of Berlin (1993). Before joining King’s as Chair in 2015, she es a Postdoc at University College London (1997-98), University Medical Center Utrecht NL (1998-9), and King’s College London (1999-2004), and again University College London (2005-07), after which she was appointed Associate Professor in Engineering Science (Medical Imaging) at the University of Oxford in 2007, where she became Full Professor in 2014. She was also Visiting Professor at Nagoya University, Japan in 2014. Since 2021 Julia is also Professor in Computational Imaging and AI in Medicine at TU Munich, Germany, and directs the Helmholtz Munich Institute of Machine Learning in Biomedical Imaging.

    Julia was elected Fellow of IEEE 2021, Fellow of MICCAI (2018), and Fellow of ELLIS (2019), where she is part of the ELLIS Health programme. She received the Alfred-Breit-Prize from the German Roentgen Society for her contributions to Medical Imaging (2024). She is a Founding Editor of MELBA, Senior Associate Editor of IEEE TMI, Editorial Board Member of the MedIA , and was General Chair of MICCAI 2024.

Dr Kuberan Pushparajah

Founder Director and Board Member, Joint Chief Medical Officer

  • Dr Pushparajah is a Consultant in Paediatric Cardiology at Evelina London Children's Hospital and a Clinical Reader in Paediatric Cardiology in the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London.

  • Kuberan's expertise in cardiovascular imaging is recognised in the UK and abroad, with over 100 peer reviewed publications and contributions to textbooks on the subject. His skills lie in the fields of magnetic resonance imaging and advanced echocardiography including 3D echocardiography where he leads the Congenital Cardiac MRI programme at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. He has particular expertise in the clinical translation of novel imaging techniques.

XRnostics Ltd. is receiving commercial and management support from the Centre for Innovation, Transformation and Improvement (CITI), Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.

Clinical

  • Dr Natasha Stephenson is a trainee in paediatric cardiology in London and is completing a research degree in cardiac imaging at the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences at King's College London.

  • Natasha completed her medical degree at the University of Edinburgh and has worked towards a career in paediatric cardiology, including 2 years of training at Evelina Children's Hospital. She has been studying the clinical value of extended reality in cardiology as part of her MD and has worked as a link between the clinical and engineering teams to help develop Heart VR TM.

Dr Natasha Stevenson

Cardiologist

Dr Maria Cano de Santayana

Paediatric Cardiologist

  • Dr. Maria Cano de Santayana is a paediatric cardiologist. After completing her training in paediatrics and paediatric cardiology in Madrid, she moved to the UK to further specialise in advanced echocardiography at Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

  • Maria’s clinical and academic interests include 3D echocardiography, advanced procedural imaging, and the application of innovative technologies to improve diagnosis, education, and procedural planning in congenital heart disease.

    She is particularly interested in translating advanced imaging into practical tools that enhance clinical decision-making, medical education, and patient care through technologies such as virtual reality.

Commercial and Management

  • Simon Mendy is a Director of Strategic Finance at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and a Director of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Enterprises with extensive experience in the hospital and healthcare industry. He is skilled in negotiation, business planning, analytics, coaching, and strategic financial management.

  • Simon is a Chartered Management Accountant who is committed to lead dynamic and complex healthcare organisations by facilitating partnership working to develop new ideas, concepts, and especially commercial innovation.

Simon Mendy

Board Member

Jason Brady

Chief Financial Officer

  • Jason Brady is a Finance Manager at Guy’s and St. Thomas’s National Hospital Trust. In this role he is managing several major projects, including the financial modelling of XRnostics.

  • Jason holds a BA in Economics from University of Essex, and Master’s degree in Data Science from Birkbeck College. He is a Chartered Accountant who previously performed several roles in the accounting sector before joining GSTT as a Senior Financial Modeller in 2016, where he became Finance Manager in 2017.

Scientists and Engineers

  • Dr Shujie Deng is an expert in human computer interaction for virtual reality applications in cardiovascular imaging.

  • Shujie holds a PhD in Human Computer Interaction from the National Centre for Computer Animation in Bournemouth University, a MSc in Computer Science from New York University, and a BEng in Electronic Information Engineering from the Communication University of China. Before joining King’s as Research Fellow and Software Engineer at the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, she worked for start-up companies as a full-stack engineer in web applications.

    Shujie contributes to the product development, engineering, and research of XRnostics Ltd.. Her experience in software engineering and expertise in interactive technologies development help the team create user-friendly immersive experiences for clinicians and patients.

Dr Shujie Deng

Software Engineering Consultant

Dr Elsa-Marie Otoo

Software Engineering Consultant

  • Maria Butt is a software engineer specialising in real-time 3D applications, interactive systems and immersive technologies. Experience in Unity and Unreal Engine, with a background spanning tools development, virtual reality and networked applications.

  • Maria holds an MSc in Games Development (Programming) from Kingston University and a BSc in Clinical Bioscience from St George's University of London. Combined background in software engineering and biomedical science provides a strong foundation for the development of interactive technologies for healthcare and medical applications.

    Professional software engineering experience at Bulkhead and Epic Games. Worked on tools development for Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), enabling accessibility to Fortnite developers. Have also developed and showcased a range of VR projects, focusing on immersive interactions, real-time 3D technology and performance optimisation. 

Maria Butt

Software Engineer

  • Dr Elsa-Marie Otoo is a Learning Resource Developer with expertise in 3D medical imaging visualisation and interactive interfaces for educational purposes.

  • Elsa-Marie graduated 2025 with a PhD from King’s College London in Human Computer Interaction, on the topic of the Virtual Anatomy Histology, for which she developed an online 3D learning platform for remote anatomical education and surgical training.

    She holds an MRes in Medical Imaging (2018) and an BEng in Biomedical Engineering (2016), both from King’s College London. She is a Teaching Fellow in Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences at King’s College London.