by Khaila Gentle

BELIZE CITY, Sun. Sept. 11, 2022

The radiology department at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) will soon be upgrading its medical imaging systems as a result of a donation from the Government of Taiwan this past week.

On Friday, September 9, the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) held a handing-over ceremony during which the KHMH received new equipment that will help to digitize the country’s radiology system. That equipment includes computed radiology (CR) readers, radiology monitors, and medical imaging software known as PACS (Picturing, Archiving and Communication System)—used to produce and store medical images.

According to the KHMH’s CEO, Chandra Cansino, the new technology will enable technicians in the hospital’s radiology unit to perform their tasks with greater efficiency and accuracy—providing them with more images over a shorter period of time and allowing them to produce reports in a timelier manner.

“Digitizing our radiology system has taken us to the next level by making images available, sharable, and easily accessible to and by our healthcare workers, providing high-resolution images, and facilitating inter-disciplinary consultations,” she said.

Radiology, also known as diagnostic imaging, is a key tool for detecting and treating diseases. There is a wide range of examinations that are carried out within the department, including CT scans, MRIs, ultrasounds, and plain X-rays. At present, radiology services in the country’s public regional hospitals involve the use of darkroom photography processing to develop physical images for patients.

One of the many advantages of the new, digitized system is that it will allow doctors to review images taken in other hospitals. It will also decrease the risk of losing images.

“We received software where the radiology images are now digital, so you will no longer see the big film that we used to carry around or we used to develop—we’ll no longer have those. Everything is digitized, so the patient can have their image on their phone as well as their computer as well as the medical professionals,” said Cansino.

The donation, added the CEO, is an invaluable contribution to the staff of the KHMH and, by extension, every person who enters the hospital. It comes two years after an agreement was signed between the governments of Belize and Taiwan to strengthen the medical imaging services in the country.

The Project for Strengthening Medical Imaging Systems in Belize, launched in November 2019, is being implemented by the International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF) in collaboration with Far Eastern Memorial Hospital in Taiwan, and Belize’s Ministry of Health and Wellness.

“We know medical care plays a very critical role in people’s everyday lives,” said Taiwanese Ambassador David Kuan-Chou Chien.

During Friday’s handing-over ceremony, Ambassador Chien noted that, of all the collaborative efforts between Taiwan and Belize, collaboration for public health is one of the most important.

“It is the hope that the handing over of this medical equipment will assist the KHMH to improve the quality of medical care for the Belizean people,” he stated.