RWB's Tariq Gill, M.D. and Brian Wetzel, along with liaison David Kerr (Health Care Guardians for Christ) have just returned back from a trip to Honduras, meeting several important goals in many projects, and helping move forward the MRI project at Hospital Escuela.
Mission Objectives• Education delivery on use of new technology
• Assist imaging staff in developing internal processes to manage multi-modality department
• Establish protocols in CT and MR imaging
• Establish peer review process for all imaging modalities
• Establish Best Practice Model for Breast Cancer screening
• Perform mammography read-out sessions with radiologists and technologists
• Formalize RWB affiliation with University of Honduras to support residency program in Radiology
• Ramp up 1.5 Tesla MRI donated by RWB
Hospital Escuela, the largest public hospital in Honduras, was operating with only a single X-Ray machine and Ultrasound until 2 years ago. The President of Honduras' decision to move hospital administration from the Secretary of Health to the Chancellor of the University has lead to positive changes, including a plan to open access to all modalities to general public. Presently, the government and patients share the expense of getting cross-sectional imaging in private clinics that only cater to the rich and famous in Honduras.
Status of new imaging department at Hospital Escuela- Department under renovation
- Public will have access to 16 and 64 slice CT scans
- The older CT, which had been donated by RWB, will be moved to a sister hospital outside of Tegucigalpa
- A new angiography suite will soon be installed
- Operation of new department is scheduled to commence in June/July of 2013
- RWB team will work with the Honduran radiologists in ramping up the new department as soon as it becomes operational
- RWB has an understanding with the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine to use their institute for video conferencing and delivery of continuing medical education
