A State of the Art Pathology laboratory completed in the Ketu North Municipality of the Volta Region needs high speed internet, to become one of the most advanced healthcare departments in the country.
The facility, which was built by the International Health and Development Network (IHDN) USA, at Weta-Adzadokpo, near Agbozume, was completed with the installation of the latest equipment including a tissue processor, embedding station, microtome and a digital pathology platform that would share data with pathologists in the US and elsewhere.
Dr Edem Agamah, the President of the IHDN, made an appeal during a working visit by the executives of the Volta Development Forum, (VDF), a development-oriented Non-governmental Organisation.
He said the digital platform would require high speed internet in the area for them to succeed.
“Our biggest challenge is the internet. Without strong and reliable internet connectivity in this area, we will not be able to transfer data to colleagues around the world. We need to connect to fiber or a broadband network,” he said.
The pathology laboratory is on the compound of the E.P. Church International Mission Hospital (EPCIMH), formerly IHDN Mission Hospital.
The hospital is a known cancer treatment centre in the country, and so the pathology department was established with the support of Dr Sanjai Nagendra, a US-based pathologist who is a longtime friend of Dr Agamah.
Volunteer pathologists and laboratory experts from the US were presently working on the installation of the equipment that cost several hundred thousand dollars at the time of the visit by the VDF team.
Dr Agamah, a Professor of Internal Medicine and Blood and Cancer Specialist, from the US shared some challenges with cancer diagnosis in the country.
He talked about the inadequate screening and diagnostic resources, saying most of the few existing facilities were based in major cities and therefore not readily available to people living in the rural areas.
He said the establishment of the advanced pathology laboratory was to help bring early diagnosis and modern cancer care to the remote areas of Ghana.
“When fully operational, we will focus on the early detection and diagnosis of breast, cervix, prostate, liver and colon cancers. People in the rural area will receive complex care closer to their homes,” he said.
Dr Agamah said Ghana had only about 30 pathologists and there was a need to train more, and hoped the facility would help promote education, collaboration and training of young histopathology technicians and doctors in the country.
“We have dreamt about this project for over 20 years. I used to send cancer specimens for patients seen in the rural area to the United States for Dr Nagendra to review.
“He will provide the diagnosis and the patients then get treatment closer to home. We both talked about how we should bring the knowledge and expertise to Ghana one day instead of bringing slides to the US to be reviewed.
“For us it is a dream come true – just to be able to make an accurate cancer diagnosis in the village, save lives. It is an audacious effort to make cancer diagnosis available to poor people, who are precious but easily forgotten by society,” he said.
He said the new machines which were newer models of what existed in the country had been brough in to be installed and that they have a digital pathology slide platform which would allow practitioners to scan slides to interpret them anywhere.
“Currently, there are only two facilities in Ghana with this type of slide scanner, but they are not functional. We are hoping that we will keep ours going, receive more support and increase the care that is offered to the rural people,” he said.
Dr Nagendra is being assisted by Ms Muriel Washington, the Chief Histotechnologist, from the US, who is providing additional training to the Ghanaian technologists.
This is the 43rd IHDN Mission team to Ghana, and the eight-member IHDN US team was joined by several Ghanaian doctors and nurses to provide medical and surgical care to almost 2,000 patients at the now E.P. Church International Mission Hospital.
Mr Daniel Agboka Dzegede, the Executive Director of the Volta Development Forum, commended the experts for their resolve to provide advanced health facilities in the area.
GNA
MA/CAA
26 Feb. 2024
Pic attached
