The new Omnyx VL4 Scanner used in diagnosis of cancer
Rwanda has acquired advanced technology for diagnosing and detecting cancer and capable of giving accurate and more precise results in short time.
The new ‘Omnyx VL4 Scanner’ worth $100,000 has been installed at Kanombe Military Hospital and will begin diagnosing patients effective Thursday.
With the new technology, Specialists said there will be no need to wait for two weeks to have results which was the case with Microscopy machinery. Within only 5 days, the results will be ready.
“With microscopy we had to widen images which takes more time to analyze results as images are not clear but the new technology simply projects the images on wide screen which eases work since we also share knowledge with our colleagues from different hospitals,” said Lt. Col. Dr. Fabien Ntaganda, Chief Pathologist at Kanombe hospital.
Rwanda has partnered with American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP) – a Chicago based Association of Laboratory professionals that will be ready to help their Rwandan counterparts for cancer results analysis.
Starting this month, ASCP has trained 14 doctors from Kanombe hospital, King Faisal hospital and Kigali University teaching hospital to use the new technology.
Dr. Ntaganda said,“Patients should not worry about the cost. The price is the same except that the results will be ready in few days. We will no longer need to ask patients to wait longer.”
Kanombe hospital receives at least 1000 cancer patients every year with 200 complicated cases.
However, Major Dr. Emile Karinganire – a Pathologist at Kanombe hospital said that with the new technology the number of patients may increase.
“The number of patients may increase because other hospitals will trust us more and refer some cases to us,” Major Dr. Karinganire said.
On the contrary, cancer specialists say Rwanda still has a long way to go in treating cancer.
“We still need skills and means to treat cancer in Rwanda” Said Dr. Ntaganda. Rwanda can only treat cancer at the chemotherapy level.
However, Kanombe hospital officials told KT Press that by January next year, the hospital will have facilities to treat cancer at Radiotherapy level.“A huge building is being elevated with x-rays facilities. All might be ready within four months,” Sonia Karibagiza, Kanombe hospital Communications Officer said.
Meanwhile, Patients were transferred to foreign countries for radiotherapy, mainly where the cost is estimated between $8,000 and $12,000.
