A TEAM of radiologists from Taunton have visited Vietnam to pass on their expertise.
They were led by Dr Andy Lowe, now the Royal College of Radiologists' travelling professor, whose role is to educate healthcare professionals in developing nations.
Their aim was to spread the practice of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanning to the Vietnamese healthcare system.
Dr Lowe said: "There was a real Somerset feel to our visit, with Dr Joanna Brown, also a radiology consultant at Musgrove Park Hospital, taking part as well.
"My fellow Royal College travelling professor, Helen O’Brien, also worked as a trainee at Musgrove in the past.”
The team visited Ho Chi Minh City, where they had planned a three-day MRI course for 40 people.
“An incredible 250 people actually turned up to learn all about MRI,” Dr Lowe added.
“The Royal College told us it was the largest overseas course it had run in the last decade.
“English isn’t spoken that much in Vietnam, especially amongst those over 25, so we had to have our course translated.
“As MRI was invented in Oxford, we naturally have a lot of expertise in the UK, and we wanted to share our knowledge with our Vietnamese colleagues so we could help them improve confidence in interpreting and reporting MRI scans.
“We were impressed with the level of knowledge of radiologists in Ho Chi Minh City as some had really advanced skills, such as experience in cardiac MRI.
"This meant we could run a more advanced course, although there were still a number of ‘beginners’ in the audience, so we tailored some of our sessions to help them.
“We covered MRI scans of all areas of the body, from head to toe, including brain imaging, musculoskeletal, paediatrics, chest, abdomen, gynaecology and more.
“The feedback about the course from our Vietnamese was really positive as, along with bringing them up to speed with our techniques in the UK, we were able to reinforce their existing knowledge base."
The British team learned that one Ho Chi Minch City hospital sees 4,000 outpatients a day, while the ultrasound department scans a patient every three minutes.
Dr Lowe is looking to run another course in Vietnam in the captial city Hanoi.
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