Expanding Radiology Training Throughout Africa
Conference aimed to extend radiology education in Tanzania and beyond
To support the need for greater awareness throughout Africa on various subspecialities in radiology, Muhimbili University of Health and Sciences (MUHAS) in Dar es Salaam, held a conference to promote subspecialty training in Tanzania and throughout the continent.
The Advancing Subspecialty Radiology Training in Tanzania was held at MUHAS, which is one of the RSNA’s Global Learning Center (GLC) locations. Every other year, MUHAS has offered a summer neuroradiology conference. To highlight the areas of new fellowships at their hospital, the onsite GLC staff worked with RSNA faculty to widen the conference topics.
“Only five countries in Africa have any subspecialty training programs available, and less than 20 have basic diagnostic radiology residency training programs,” according to Frank Minja, MD, GLC program director and an associate professor of radiology and imaging sciences at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
Neuroradiology panelists Drs. Christopher Filippi, Ugumba Kwikima, Mwajabu Saleh and Frank Minja share a joke at the end of their session.
There were multiple goals in gathering these subspecialty groups for this conference, according to Lulu Fundikira, MD, consultant radiologist and lecturer in the Department of Radiology and Imaging at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
“The conference focused on neuroradiology and having neuroradiology super specialists in attendance encouraged multidisciplinary collaboration to improve diagnosis and accurate management of patients with neuro-diseases,” said Dr. Fundikira, who is also president of the Tanzania Radiology Society (TARASO). “In addition, the conference provided an overview of current fellowship training in interventional radiology, created awareness about the subspecialty training in female imaging, especially for the early diagnosis and management of gynecological diseases, and helped explain the development of formal fellowship trainings in Tanzania with support from international organizations, such as RSNA and Road to IR initiative.”
Dr. Suyash Mohan, GLC Volunteer Faculty Tanzania and Dr. Christelle Ackermann, GLC Faculty South Africa, talk together before presenting.
The emerging fellowship areas at MUHAS are neuroradiology and women’s imaging, which are supported by the GLC, and interventional radiology, which is supported by the Road2IR program, an international consortium of physicians, nurses, technologists and trainees working together to bring minimally invasive, image guided procedures to East Africa.
“By intentionally highlighting each of the fellowships during the conference through presentations, we wanted to inspire other radiologists to pursue subspecialty training,” Dr. Minja said.
Dr. Tim Rooney, GLC Faculty Tanzania, stands with MNH women’s imaging fellows Drs. Mwajuma Jumbe and Irene Mhalu.
Over two days, more than 150 radiologists from eight countries throughout Africa attended the conference. Speakers were from Tanzania, the U.S., South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.
“Overall, the goal was to advance radiology for the betterment of patient care,” Dr. Minja said. “The conference was an opportunity for sharing knowledge, experiences and networking with each other to strengthen the specialty.”
The conference sponsors included MUHAS, RSNA GLC, Muhimbili National Hospital, Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute and the Tanzania Radiology Society.
For More Information
Read previous RSNA News articles about MUHAS and the RSNA Global Learning Centers: