BUTH Ogbomoso to become hub of medical care, acquires 2 new exclusive digital machines
Femi OGUNLANA
Bowen University Teaching Hospital (BUTH), Ogbomoso, is on the verge of becoming a hub of digital healthcare delivery centre as it on Tuesday dedicated two units housing state-of-the-art digital equipment. This is just as it has commenced moves to upgrade its School of Nursing to a College of Nursing.
In addition, the institution identifying the importance of power in maintaining perfect services is improving on its power supply system now effectively harnessing energy from a mix of solar, generator and national grid, which now ensures greater supply of electricity.
The two new equipment, CT Scan machine and Digital Dental Panoramic Radiography System, were acquired through Private-Private-Partnership (PPP) model, which the institution is ramping up in its bid to migrate to a digitalized health centre and leverage on technology-aided diagnosis and treatment.
While DarexScanView International Ltd., Ilorin, Kwara state, supplied the Digital Dental Panoramic Radiography System, CrestView Radiology Ltd, Lagos, installed the Computed Tomography (CT) Scan.
Commissioning the centres on Tuesday, the chairman of the Governing Board of the teaching hospital, Professor Adekunle Dunmade, expressed delight at the advances being made in the institution, which he described as groundbreaking.
Professor Akintade Dare, the Chief Executive Officer of DarexScanView (a medical diagnostic imaging company, during a facility tour of the Radiomaxillogy Centre, which houses the Digital Dental Panoramic Radiography System, said the installation of the machine represents the phase one of the partnership assuring that by April 2023, the second phase, which covers the supply of Digital Medical Diagnostic Imaging System, would take effect.
Akintade, a professor of Oral Maxillofacial Radiology and Medical Radiography informed that the company specializes in digital image acquisition, 3D/4D Display/Viewing, Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD), Computer-Aided Surgery (CAS) and Teleradiology (Intranet and Internet Communication of Diagnostic Images) for diagnosis and treatment analysis.”
The world-renowned diagnostic imaging expert further noted, “There is a current digital demand in the healthcare delivery system in Nigeria to allow a direct real-time communication of images with the rest of the world for second opinion diagnosis and treatment options,” asserting, “A digital divide is imminent if this global digital demand is not heeded.”
Emphasizing the cutting-edge advantage the system would give BUTH, Dare, an Ogbomoso indigene stated, “Arguably, there is no Digital Dental Panoramic Radiography System in the entire Ogbomoso, Ilorin, Oyo, Osogbo, Iseyin and Ibadan areas and no functional dental panoramic and cephalometric x-ray resource.”
He explained that a patient – dental, ENT, trauma, RTA, accident and emergency etc – will within ten seconds get examined by the machine “and the image is directly on the computer, and doesn’t have to go through any kind of processing. Its great resolution helps in more precise diagnosis and treatment.”
He added that if it is a referred patient (from outside), the image would have gotten to the referring physician before the patient gets back “as we would have sent the result by e-mail,
“We are going to send the result by CD and then we are going to have the traditional film with a great resolution,” just as he submitted, “importantly, we will be in the position to find second opinion on diagnosis. From here we send to our friends abroad asking, ‘what do you think about this?’ and then we are confident of our diagnosis. So, our vision is technology-driven and patient-oriented.”
Commending the management of the hospital in keying in to the “plug and play” model, he enthused that the goal is to make the hospital “totally digital.”
At the CrestView centre, which had installed its CT Scan machine, the administrative manager, Mr. Wahab Aderemi Adigun said the machine is now fully operational managed by dedicated staff of CrestView Ltd, informing that the first patient that went through the machine, was given free service even as the CMD Dr Olupona admitted the facility had been used on him.
A medical practitioner during the tour told ogbomosoinsightonline.com that the CT Scan is an “advanced x-ray machine. that shows images of any internal parts of the body on the computer, and can detect the smallest pathology, it helps to diagnose a wide range of diseases, as it gives more detailed information about the inside of the body than standard x-rays.”
The BUTH CT Scan is said to be 40 slides while the ones available in neighbouring cities like the one in Ilorin is 32 slides. “Ours is a higher grade,” even as the CMD disclosed they are now having referrals from LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Oke-Ogun, Ilorin and so on.
The CrestView team meanwhile lauded the staff of BUTH “for their friendliness and cooperation,” confessing, “We are very happy working with them.”
At the ongoing project sites – the power control room by Go Solar Africa (CGROB) and the College of Nursing complex, the developments point to the goal of making the tertiary health centre a real hub of medical activities.
Professor Olupona asserted they are working to significantly improve power supply, and so had partnered with Go Solar Africa adding, “the control room mixes energy from different sources – National Grid, solar, backup generator and in the future we are looking at gas turbines.
“We started experimenting with this back in August, though we are yet to be where we hope to be but we will get there and we hope this will reduce cost.”
The new School of Nursing complex under construction is another masterpiece, which is now at the roofing stage. As at the time of the visit, workmen were busy rounding off on the carcass of the roof.
The two storey-building structure is complete with lecture rooms, entrepreneur laboratory for training nursing students in various skills, kitchenette to learn to prepare meal for patients who have special dietary requirements, Provost Office, lecturers offices and so on, and according to the CMD, the goal is to upgrade to a College of Nursing.
He further stated, “We want our students to learn entrepreneurial skills side by side with their nursing programmes, we are going to have an entrepreneurial laboratory. In addition we will now be able to run different programmes.”
Professor Dunmade, Chairman, Governing Board, visibly excited, continually appreciated the management of the hospital, and the partners, for helping to take the hospital to a higher ground.
