By Emmanuel Elebeke
A s part of efforts to ensure the full utilisation of the potentials of radiology services for better turn over in the nation’s health sector, there is need for the industry to transit from film to digital radiography. Intensive training of new radiologists has also been deemed necessary as a way of bridging the manpower shortage in the industry.

A consultant radiographer at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital Kano, Prof. Akintade Dare who made the call in Lagos during the 2009 radiology faculty day activities of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria with the theme:

“Emerging Radiological Technologies: Which Way Forward- How We Can Fast-Track” was of the view that only the empowerment of trained radiologists and introduction of emerging digital technologies in  health institutions would ensure enhancement of productivity and efficiency.

In his paper entitled: “Reinventing medical Radiology in Nigeria”: Strategies and Solutions” Dare said: “If we go digital, we will produce x-ray images faster and  with more accuracy. Also, we can have better returns on the long run, such as in the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, where I’m leading the coordination of conversion of film to digital radiography.

“What we have done is to provide the knowledge base. We do not know how to bring together resources, and for us to move forward, it is imperative for government as well as the management of the tertiary hospitals to introduce digital radiography and understand the need for enough radiologists, who will make use of the new technologies. He said one advantage of going digital is reduced operational cost.

He attributed poor diagnoses through conventional methods to poor image quality. “Most of the time, it is not those doing the interpretation who are wrong, rather it is the image quality. All over the world digital imaging techniques have improved imaging quality of the x-ray a great deal and our experience at AKTH shows that better image resolution will go a long way in making better diagnoses.