The First Masters of Science in Interventional Radiology Training Program in Africa: Year 1

Objectives: Over four billion people around the world do not have access to interventional radiology (IR), rendering a broad range of life-saving procedures inaccessible. Our objective was to challenge the notion that IR does not play a role in the developing world. Over the past year, we built the first IR training program in East Africa and were training three IR fellows per year in a two-year Master of Science in Interventional Radiology curriculum. Methods: Every month, a teaching team consisting of an IR attending, nurse, and technologist travel from North America to Tanzania to train local residents, nurses, and technologists. All consultations, preprocedure information, procedures, and follow-up at 1 and 3months are recorded via Research Electronic Data Capture, a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliant workflow application. Results: A total of 231 procedures were performed by the newly established IR service from October 2018 to November 2019, the majority of which were nonvascular interventions (88%). All procedures were performed by the Tanzanian IR fellows as primary operators under the supervision of visiting faculty. The vast majority of the procedures were technically successful (99%) and uncomplicated (94%), while few (6%) were associated with minor complications (SIR class A and B) and one was associated with a more significant complication (SIR class C). The distribution of nonvascular IR procedures performed over the 1^st year is outlined in Figure 2. Conclusion: We have demonstrated that establishing an IR training program in the resource-limited setting is safe and feasible. There is an urgent need for expansion of such training programs to other developing nations to make IR available to a broader population.

 

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Publication History

Article published online:
26 April 2021