Today the 8th of November, the world over is the international day of Radiology. Radiology is that branch of Medicine that deals with medical imaging. Medicine itself has undergone tremendous changes over the centuries from the days of Hippocrates. There is no argument that one of the grandest offshoots and ever budding aspects of medicine is Radiology.
From the days of the discovery of X-radiation (X-ray) in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, a German physicist, Radiology has super evolved. While X-ray can be regarded as the bedrock of Radiology, other imaging modalities in the armamentarium of the Radiologist include ultrasound, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear medicine amongst others. These imaging modalities, also, have advanced over the years, thanks to engineering and soft ware solutions.
The radiologist, a doctor to doctors may be regarded as a medical seer. A seer not in the sense of seeing the future but of demonstrating the health condition of patients image wise. The Radiologist probes the human body with instruments or radiation, defines anatomy and brings to bare disease processes hidden underneath the skin. This unravelling of pathologies by Radiologists reduces probably by half the job of other doctors and surgeons who are put in the know to better manage their patients. To succinctly put it, Radiology makes diagnosis easier and faster, provides differential diagnosis, defines disease complications and is a powerful tool in performing a host of interventional procedures. Such interventional procedures include but not at all limited to opening up and repair of clogged or diseased blood vessels in the brain, lungs, limbs or others to save such organs.
The practice of radiology in this part of the world has met its own quota of challenges. These include poor funding for procurement of machines and the menace of quacks. Today thankfully, the story is gradually improving. Radiological centers and hospitals across the state and the country at large are now beginning to
boast of various state of the art diagnostic and interventional equipments. Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi is such a place. A citadel of health which through the years has produced eminent professors, consultants and scholars in the field of Radiology. On this note, the federal and state governments are asked to do more to sponsor Radiology training and procurement of equipment in various health facilities.
It is no longer news that health professionals (the radiologist inclusive) are leaving the shores of this country on daily basis. They leave in search of greener pastures, they leave for the stark insecurity and economic quagmire that has bedeviled the country. The government should wake up, sit up and do the needful by providing a thriving and sustainable environment for health and economic development. It is a shameful thing that Nigeria, christened “the giant of Africa” can only boast of a doctor to patient ratio of one doctor to 9,083 patients in contrast to the WHO recommendation of one doctor to 600 patients.
People should be aware that original Radiological services are obtainable even in our environment. They should ask questions to avoid falling prey in the hands of quacks and fake Radiology service vendors. These are those who parade themselves as medical sages, wear clinical gown more than doctors, operate in shanties and confuse people with medical jargons. They dish out wrong diagnosis, leaving the patient to his or her own fate.
Today, the world celebrates a specialist group of doctors- the radiologist and the imaging scientist -Radiographer.
Written by DR IFEANYI UZUKWU/
Comments are closed for this post.