Zambia and Zimbabwe: Opportunities for growth in pediatric radiology

MINISYMPOSIUM

Zambia and Zimbabwe: Opportunities for growth in pediatricradiology

Ronald A. Cohen

Received: 24 January 2014 /Accepted: 21 February 2014# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

InMay 2013 I had the opportunity to visit medical schools andchildren’s hospitals in Zambia and Zimbabwe under the aus-pices of two non-governmental organizations managed bypediatricians affiliated with Children’s Hospital Oakland.Charles Clemons, MD, works with the Georgian Foundationin Zambia and Dan Robbins, MD, with the J.F. Kapnek Trustin Zimbabwe. Through them I met with enthusiastic physi-cians who care for their pediatric patients the best they canwith limited resources.

The University Teaching Hospital in Zambia has ap-proximately 1,900 beds, of which 400–500 are pediatric.There is one Zambian radiologist, who was trained inSouth Africa, and there are three foreign radiologists,two from China and one from Ukraine. There is no fileroom, and radiographs are kept on the patient beds (fre-quently there are two patients per bed). Clinicians read theradiographs themselves and occasionally ask a radiologistto consult upon special request. Access to advanced cross-sectional imaging is problematic for many reasons, includ-ing the necessity for an ambulance ride to another build-ing on the large campus.

Historically, Zimbabwe had a sophisticated medicalcommunity with superb medical education and a widerange of specialists. In the late 1990s, a children’shospital was constructed for in-patient, out-patient andspecialty services. However, because of difficulties inthe political environment, the building deteriorated andthere was an exodus of specialists from the country.Much of the space is not utilized because of the lack ofpersonnel and equipment. Zimbabwe has a total of 13 radiol-ogists, 11 in Harare (8 of them were at my lecture). All are in

private practice, occasionally helping at the university hospitaland children’s hospital.

Neither Zimbabwe nor Zambia currently has anyradiology training. Moreover, there are no pediatric ra-diologists. The clinicians are very eager to further theireducation and were very engaged during lectures andward rounds.

Drs. Clemons and Robbins and their organizations collab-orate with the Ministries of Health and Education to ensurethat there is local support and participation with outreachefforts regarding health care. A key element of their philoso-phy is sustainability, which should be the goal of the WorldFederation of Pediatric Imaging as well.

The mission of the World Federation of Pediatric Imaging(WFPI) is to improve the quality of pediatric imaging, wher-ever there is a need, in partnership with facilities around theworld. I have been communicating with the pediatricians andradiologists in Zambia and Zimbabwe and have asked them tosend more information about their needs and a proposal to theWFPI.

Fig. 1 At Harare Children’s Hospital (Zimbabwe), Ronald Cohenteaches a pediatrician how to perform cranial sonography on a newbornusing a very low-cost, just-out-of-the-box portable US unit

R. A. Cohen (*)Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Children’s Hospital,747 52nd St., Oakland, CA 94609, USAe-mail: roncohenmd@aol.com

Pediatr Radiol (2014) 44:644–645DOI 10.1007/s00247-014-2949-5

Zambia and Zimbabwe have local doctors and administra-tors who would like to effect significant improvements to theirsystem. They recognize the increasing role of imaging inmedical practice, and the WFPI has a tremendous opportunity

to be part of the efforts to improve medical care in bothZambia and Zimbabwe (Fig. 1).

Conflicts of interest None.

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