The Kansas University Medical Center (KUMC) RAD-AID chapter was formed in 2018 through the leadership and vision of musculoskeletal radiologist, Nebiyu Beteselassie, MD who is a former staff member of the University of Kansas Diagnostic Radiology residency program in Kansas City, KS. Dr. Beteselassie is a native Ethiopian, who is passionate about advancing the practice of radiology in his home country.
The KUMC RAD-AID chapter formally sends a multidisciplinary group to Ethiopia at least one time per year. Current goals and objectives primarily deal with advancing the education related to the subspecialties of interventional radiology and breast imaging at St. Paul’s Hospital in the capital city, Addis Ababa.
St. Paul is a university affiliated government owned Hospital. The hospital was built in 1968 by the late Emperor Haile-selassie. The hospital now has over 360 beds and 1300 staff to provide medical specialty services to an estimated 200,000 people annually who are referred from all over the country.
Current KUMC RAD-AID activities include establishing a breast imaging fellowship program, assisting with training interventional radiologists, working towards establishing a breast imaging technologist certificate for Ethiopian trainees.
IR
– Section established in 2016.
– Existing fellowship program in collaboration with a private hospital in Korea for the past 3 years. It is a 2-year training program, spending 1 week/month at the Korean hospital.
– July 2018: KUMC radiology sent a team of neuro and body interventional radiologists to perform hands on training and reading room case discussions at St. Paul.
– July 2019: Body IR fellow sent hands on training, reading room case discussions at St. Paul. Sent with 100 lbs of IR supplies
– Plan: Working with RAD-AID to establish a fellowship training program based at St. Paul starting January, 2020. IR attending from different countries in the world will be taking part in training the fellows.
Breast/women’s imaging
– KU chapter in collaboration with UMKC and RAD-AID International starting the first breast imaging fellowship program January, 2019, including diagnostic workup and small scale screening.
– 5 fellows onboard for 2-year training program.
– Breast imagers from US travel to teach, 1 every month on average.
– July 2019: KUMC radiology team, including breast staff radiologists; teach fellows and residents, lectures, hands on training.
– Plan: Work with ministry of health to start nationwide screening program.