[3] Collins was educated at Beresford House School for Girls in Eastbourne was an undergraduate at the University of East Anglia, Norwich where she was awarded a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry in 1990.

On graduating from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts Collins started her career as a professional actress appearing in several stage productions as well as Thames Television’s series ‘The Bill’ and a BBC 999 Lifesaver’s special.

[4] In 1996 she left acting and joined the team at the Pain Research Unit, Nuffield Department of Anaesthetics, University of Oxford.

This led to her being the UK PI for ICARIS a multicentre, randomised controlled trial which finally demonstrated the analgesic efficacy of intra-cutaneous sterile water for back pain in labour.

[13] Her work with Kypros Nicolaides of the Fetal Medicine Foundation led to the development of the original fully convolutional neural network (OxNNet) which can automatically segment the placenta from a 3D ultrasound volume.

The work of Collins, Stevenson and Alec (William) Welsh on power Doppler (PD) ultrasound has led to the development of the first standardised technique for quantitative estimation of perfusion in 3D which has now been validated in an animal model.

Her recent study modelling placental vascularity with Alys Clark and Joanne James at the University of Auckland, challenges the dogma regarding the origin of the changes seen in the uterine artery waveform, proposing a new mechanism for the underlying pathology.

Her work with the International Society for Placenta Accreta Spectrum (IS-PAS) includes producing standardised definitions for ultrasound and MRI markers and the only evidence-based guideline for intra-partum management.

She has also studied the negative psychological effects of PAS having demonstrated that nearly 50% of women affected by this experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to their delivery.