By Emmanuel Elebeke
THE 2009 faculty day lecture of National Post Graduate Medical College of Nigeria has ended with emphasis on federal government to digitalize all tertiary hospitals in the country.

The lecture which preceded the 27th convocation of  NGMCN attracted eminent medical professionals in the faculty of radiology from across the country, including a US  based senior Oral magnificial radiologist and consultant to Aminu Kano University Teaching Hospital, Professor Akintade Dare who delivered the lecture.

Delivering the lecture, Professor Dare said at a time when every country was aspiring to go digital  in all aspect of life and human endeavour, especially in the area of health, Nigeria cannot afford to be lest behind, regretting that of the seventeen tertiary  hospitals in the country none could boast of a digitalized radiography equipment for accurate  study and application of imaging technology like x-ray and radiation to diagnosing and treating disease.

While stressing the need for hospitals in Nigeria to transit from film to digital radiography, Professor Dare commended  the management of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital for consulting him to lead a coordination of conversion of film to digital radiography in the institution, a step he said on completion will position AKUTH as the first and only hospital in the country to go digital.

Underscoring the need for digital radiography, the guest lecturer said  radiology apart from dealing with application of technology, and radiation to diagnosis it also encompasses the examination of the inner structure of objects using X-rays or other penetrating radiation.

Continuing, the radiology expert said  for Nigeria to fully maximize its potentials and have a better turn over in the health delivery, it must begin the process of transiting from film to digital radiography, as well as massive training of new radiologists and radiographers to bridge the gap created by the short supply of radiologists  in the country, adding that  reinventing medical radiology in Nigerian hospitals would be a good strategy towards enhancing productivity by health workers. With the large population of Nigeria, he said Nigeria  stands to produce quality and sufficient professionals to provide such  services to the Nigerian  populace.

“We have a large population and I think  we can take it from there and we have equipments. So what we need to do is to have a better turn over is to empower more doctors and introduce emerging technologies in our health institutions that can enhance productivity and efficiency, because the world  have gone digital. One of such technologies is digital radiology machine.  If we go digital, we will produce X-ray images faster than before and we can transmit them to wherever we want them. ” he said.

With the introduction of Digital radiography, Professor dare said the operational cost of diagnoses and X-tray in the country would be greatly reduced and the certainty of results guaranteed.

“This involves dropping the process of buying film, the processor, chemicals, marking by chemical and a whole lots of processes that could lead to error and stress” he said.

As for the cost, we have worked out  and found out that it is more cheaper. Though, the  cost is going to be transferred, it will definitely be recovered at the long run.” he noted.

For those who are ignorant of emerging technologies in the area of radiography, he said “radiology  has advanced beyond the old system including information technology and communication system have fused with radiology. Old time radiologists do not believe that we will be living in this world now, because with digital equipments, we can even see the human organ.

Commenting on the poor diagnostic results common with most diagnostic centres, he said  “Most of the time, it is not the individual doing the interpretation that is wrong, because they work with images presented to them, it is the image quality. All over the world today, the digital imaging techniques  has improved imaging quality of x-tray  a great deal and our experience at Kano showed that the resolution of the image will go a long way to make better diagnoses. I do know that the image quality improvement will improve the certainty , unequivocal, unambiguous impression diagnoses is being made”
He then called on the government and management of tertiary hospitals in Nigeria to see the deployment of emerging technologies in Nigerian hospitals as a way of improving healthcare services delivery, manpower and quality of human lives.

“What we have done this afternoon is to provide the knowledge base. We do not know how to bring together the resources repose in us by nature, and for us to move forward, it is imperative for government as well as the  management of all the tertiary hospitals in Nigeria to introduce digital radiography in all these hospitals and understand the  our need for sufficient radiologists, who will make use of the new technologies.

“We have led the foundation of the knowledge for the doctors in this country, so it is my hope that they will be able to go forward” he posited.