ITW Program Extended to Mubende District

This is the first time since our initial training session in Uganda in 2009 that ITW has put ultrasound machines into government facilities. We have been given support by the Ministry of Health to move forward with this program and are delighted to implement the ITW program at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital and Kasambya Health Centre III, both in Mubende District. The implementation is facilitated by the fact that Dr. Alphonsus Matovu, surgeon and part-time program director for the ITW program, has been recently stationed at Mubende Hospital. This gives us the opportunity to have direct supervision as the program is rolled out. A Philips Clearvue 350 ultrasound machine was placed yesterday in the Radiology Department at Mubende Hospital. The radiologist and sonographers are delighted as their current machine is quite antiquated and the new machine gives them functionality and quality that they have not had before. They were also set up with a McKesson PACS system that allows them to review images sent from Kasambya HCIII and will also allow them to discuss problem cases and do peer review (i.e. cases are secondarily reviewed by an expert from Mubende ) for quality assurance (a pillar of the ITW program). The radiologist and sonographers at Mubende Hosital will be able to take better care of all patients referred to the hospital in the district; in particular, they are able to better serve the patients transferred from Kasambya HC III when urgent problems are identified on the basic antenatal scan done at the rural clinic.