Francis Hasford

Medical physics practice and training in Ghana

Medical physics has been an indispensable and strategic stakeholder in the delivery of radiological services to the healthcare system of Ghana. The practice has immensely supported radiation oncology and medical imaging facilities over the years, while the locally established training programme continues to produce human resource to feed these facilities. The training programme has grown to receive students from other African countries in addition to local students. Ghana has been recognised by the International Atomic Energy Agency as Regional Designated Centre for Academic Training of Medical Physicists in Africa. The Ghana Society for Medical Physics collaborates with the School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences of the University of Ghana to ensure that training offered to medical physicists meet international standards, making them clinically qualified. The Society has also worked together with other bodies for the passage of the Health Professions Regulatory Bodies Act, giving legal backing to the practice of medical physics and other allied health professions in Ghana. The country has participated in a number of International Atomic Energy Agencys projects on medical physics and has benefited from its training courses, fellowships and workshops, as well as those of other agencies such as International Organization for Medical Physics. This has placed Ghanas medical physicists in good position to practice competently and improve healthcare.

Radiation Protection, Safety and Security Issues in Ghana.

AbstractAlthough the use of radioisotopes in Ghana began in 1952, the Radiation Protection Board of Ghana was established in 1993 and served as the national competent authority for authorization and inspection of practices and activities involving radiation sources until 2015. The law has been superseded by an Act of Parliament, Act 895 of 2015, mandating the Nuclear Regulatory Authority of Ghana to take charge of the regulation of radiation sources and their applications. The Radiation Protection Institute in Ghana provided technical support to the regulatory authority. Regulatory and service activities that were undertaken by the Institute include issuance of permits for handling of a radiation sources, authorization and inspection of radiation sources, radiation safety assessment, safety assessment of cellular signal towers, and calibration of radiation-emitting equipment. Practices and activities involving application of radiation are brought under regulatory control in the country through supervision by the national competent authority.

Estimation of kidney and bladder radionuclide activity for patients undergoing bone scan

Abstract Radionuclide activities in the kidney and bladder have been estimated experimentally from practical data 3h after injection of Tc-99m MDP, using conjugate view methodology. The study involved sixty-five patient images from the database of a nuclear medicine department in Ghana. Time–activity curve was stimulated with MatLab computer program using biokinetic model published in MIRD Report 13. The model was used to determine theoretical activities in kidney and bladder, which were compared with the experimental data. Estimated radionuclide activities for the kidney and bladder were both minimal in the experimental case comparative to the theoretical. The fraction of injected activity in kidney and bladder were less than 1% of injected activity, and hence kidney and bladder could be seen to receive very low doses during bone scans.