Health Ministry and RAD-AID partner to expand Guyana’s radiology capabilities

The Health Ministry and RAD-AID International, a non-profit radiology organisation,
have forged a new partnership to improve the country’s capabilities to provide the special
care.
Under the accord there will be expansion of medical-imaging equipment; picture archiving and
communications systems (PACS); electronic health interconnectivity; community outreach; as
well as clinical education for nurses, technologists and physicians.
A statement from the Health Ministry said the partnership builds upon RAD-AID’s work to
establish Guyana’s first radiology residency at Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) since 2017,
which recently graduated Guyana’s first class of in-country trained radiologists.
It said in the last four years, RAD-AID also implemented and supported new computed
tomography (CT) services and PACS in GPHC, New Amsterdam and Bartica Hospitals. RAD-
AID specialists also provided training of physicians, nurses and technologists for intravenous
(IV) contrast procedures; radiologic/ultrasound image-quality; patient-safety, and women’s
health outreach (with support from Ambra Health, Philips, Bayer and Google Cloud).
RAD-AID also ramped up its remote teaching and clinical support to Guyana’s hospitals as the
current COVID-19 pandemic threatened to stall the programme. The partner also delivered
innovative medical imaging, artificial intelligence (AI) implementation and training (with
support from Densitas, Koios Medical, and Qure.ai).
The two sides also intend to leverage these achievements to help scale up health-care resources
in Guyana’s low-resource hospitals and facilities.
The press release said the Ministry is also partnering with RAD-AID to expand healthcare
accessibility among medically-underserved communities in Guyana, accelerate technology
adoption for modernising the country’s health information platforms, and connect tertiary care
institutions with regional and district health facilities.

“Radiology (imaging diagnostics) is a critical part of quality medicine. With this collaboration,
we seek to elevate both technology and human resource capacity throughout the country,
bringing better health care to people” the health minister said.
“We are delighted to collaborate with Guyana’s Ministry of Health for advancing radiology
health services and capabilities in Guyana,” said Dr. Daniel J. Mollura, founder and CEO of
RAD-AID.
Mollura added: “This new partnership will enable RAD-AID to extend the progress at GPHC,
New Amsterdam, and Bartica Hospitals, to other health institutions throughout Guyana. We look
forward to strengthening technology, innovation, and education for Guyana’s health workers and
patients.”
The Health ministry intends to have state-of-the-art X-rays and other imaging diagnostics, such
as computerised tomography (CT); magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and Ultra Sound more
accessible in all Regional Hospitals. Under the partnership, the health ministry plans to phase out
the use of imaging films and chemicals both environmental hazards.
About RAD-AID International
RAD-AID International is a nonprofit (501c3) charitable organisation with a mission to increase
and improve radiology and medical imaging for medically underserved regions. It provides
radiology education and training through on-site and hands-on teaching of healthcare workers in
low and middle-income countries (LMICs), as well as low-resource facilities in medically-
underserved communities of high-income countries.
RAD-AID designs, builds, and implements healthcare infrastructure, imaging equipment, and
radiology technology which it integrates with clinical training, to accomplish vital radiology
capacity-building.

The organization consists of over 14,000 volunteers and some 80 university-based medical
center chapters and operates global health outreach programmes in 38 countries across Africa,
Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
As radiology is vital to most health services, such as cancer treatment, maternal-fetal monitoring,
heart disease care, and trauma response, RAD-AID improves the accessibility, safety, and quality
of radiology worldwide as an anchor for improving global health.
For more information you can visit www.rad-aid.org