Dr Geetha Menon completed pathology training from the prestigious Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. She undertook further training at the Hammersmith and Royal Marsden Hospitals, London, UK. Following this, she acquired specialist haematopathology training, at the University of Oxford with a visiting fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA.
After an initial consultant appointment at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, she joined Liverpool Clinical Laboratories in 2013. She currently leads the Haemato-oncology Diagnostic Service (HODS ) for the Cheshire & Merseyside Cancer Network. She has been instrumental in developing the vision and plan to create this unique integrated service, which combines data from immunophenotyping, morphology and molecular genetics including next generation sequencing (NGS) to derive a single diagnosis. This is one of very few services in the UK and one of only a handful that is fully integrated and currently serves the entire Cheshire & Merseyside Cancer Network. Building this superb and agile team has been possible due to her ability to train, support and mentor colleagues effectively. Her team has gone on to win the inaugural LCL ‘Time to Shine’ award in the Team category, which is testament to the excellence of the service.
Together with her colleagues and working in partnership with industry, she has driven forward cutting-edge innovations in Next Generation Sequencing, that have a national and international impact, with current uptake in numerous countries in Europe, Africa and the middle-east. These innovations are real game changers in precision diagnosis and will unlock the potential of personalised medicine in haemato-oncology.
With over 20 years of experience in haemato-oncology diagnosis, she is an expert in analysing complex haematopathology cases. Outside of this region, she has received cases for expert opinion from India, the Czech Republic, Egypt and Pakistan.
She has extensive experience in academic research and is well published with high impact factor publications, having worked with academia and industrial multinationals. She is currently a member of the NCRI (National Cancer Research Institute) low grade lymphoma subgroup and progressing research nationally with this group. She further intends to progress fellowships in haematopathology including a research component.
Throughout her career, she has always maintained the patient at the centre of her practice and this has spurred the numerous innovations she has created.
Her ultimate goal is to further progress HODS to a centre of international excellence in haemato-oncology diagnostics and research. She enjoys literature and has written a collection of 350 poems, many published in national newspapers in India.