Siemens Healthineers Partners With RAD-AID To Support Radiology Education Across Africa
The strategic partnership between RAD-AID and Siemens Healthineers focuses on providing access to affordable education; The program will ensure fast bridging of specific educational gaps in staff training for medical imaging equipment in low-resource settings in Ghana, Kenya & Tanzania.
As part of its commitment to improving access to care worldwide and transforming care delivery, Siemens Healthineers has partnered with RAD-AID to support radiology education across African countries. Radiology is a part of nearly every segment of healthcare, including paediatrics, obstetrics, medicine and surgery, making the absence of radiology a critical piece of global health disparity.
RAD-AID is a non-profit public service established in 2008 to answer the need for more radiology and imaging technology in the resource-limited regions and underserved communities of the world. It has since grown to include over 14,000 volunteers from 146 countries, serving 91 hospitals in over 40 countries with a mission to increase and improve radiology in low- and middle-income countries, as well as underserved areas of high-income countries.
Speaking on the partnership, Ole Per Maloy, CEO, Siemens Healthineers, Middle East, Southern & Eastern Africa said, “Continuous Education and Training in the field of Radiology is essential in ensuring quality healthcare and accurate diagnosis. We, at Siemens Healthineers are proud to support RAD-AIDs radiology education program, this initiative will provide essential training for Healthcare professionals across Africa.”
RAD-AID works in over 40 countries to improve and optimize access to medical imaging and radiology in low-resource regions of the world, African countries included. The charitable non-profit offers a broad portfolio of volunteering programs to foster education for radiology professionals in low-resource settings. Education is a growing topic in Africa. The partnership with RAD-AID will allow for a fast deployment of resources to ensure adequately trained staff on medical imaging equipment.
“The collaboration between RAD-AID and Siemens Healthineers is an exciting high impact outreach program for radiology education and health equity to help low-resource medical institutions in low and middle-income countries,” said Daniel J. Mollura, MD President/CEO of RAD-AID International.
The challenges being faced in the region to be addressed by the partnership include a shortage of skilled medical providers and workers in the field, financial limitations that constrain investment in education for medical imaging, and poor hospital infrastructure in Africa, including poor internet connection and obsolete equipment.
Siemens Healthineers is financially supporting RAD-AID activities across selected African countries, namely Kenya, Ghana and Tanzania, with multiple potential activities in additional countries in future.