• This makes Kenya the first in the region and the second globally to embrace the technology.
• The technology was first developed in Wuhan, China and has been successfully used to detect and help in monitoring the progress of Covid-19 patients.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
The Kenyatta National Hospital has opened its first telemedicine technology centre for coronavirus detection.
The Computed Tomography (CT) Scan centre opened yesterday by the Health CS Mutahi Kagwe has been interfaced with artificial intelligence software, Golden Eye, used to detect Covid -19.
This makes Kenya the first in the region and the second globally to embrace the technology.
The technology was first developed in Wuhan, China and has been successfully used to detect and help in monitoring the progress of Covid-19 patients.
The centre has already handled 50 scan cases and mainly provides imaging diagnostics of various medical ailments, routine checks, emergencies and teaching.
Doctors will be able to interact and share information among the counties and across borders through teleconferencing capability. It will be a 24-hour facility.
"Very soon we are going to have major operations being done in Kenya by our own doctors rather than taking patients overseas.
"Instead of sending radiologists to different counties we can have CT scans interpreted here," Kagwe said.
The KNH national data centre will serve as a centre of excellence housing CT machines and other supportive equipment.
The centre incorporates a medical teleconferencing and an artificial intelligence teleradiology facility that will act as a hub for diagnosis and reporting of images, through a server or internet connectivity.
It has the capacity to carry out teleconferences among 37 counties in Kenya and overseas countries like China, Egypt and London.
“By the installation of this AI system, KNH becomes the pioneers in the diagnosis of viral pneumonia-related infections like the Covid –19 infections, and tracking treatment cases in confirmed cases, in the continent,” KNH CEO Evanson Kamuri said.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
Among the state of the art machines fitted are an automatic generator as power back-up, an uninterruptible power supply to keep running in case of a power outage, cloud imaging devices, laser and thermal printers, CCTV and a thermoluminescent dosimeter to measure radiation levels both patients and medics have been exposed to.
“The imaging findings of viral pneumonia are diverse and overlap with those of other non-viral infections and inflammatory conditions. However, identification of the underlying viral pathogens may not always be easy, but that will be a thing of the past moving forward,” Kamuri said.
Some of the over thirty counties with already operational CT centres include; King Fahad Hospital in Lamu, Kakamega County Referral Hospital, Thika Level Five Hospital, Iten County Referral Hospital (Elgeyo Marakwet County), Narok County Referral Hospital and Voi Level Five Hospital (Taita Taveta County).
Following concerns over the safety of patients and medical staff on the risks of exposure to ionising radiation, the government has assured patients that the new CT scan machines are free from exposure to radiation.
The Chinese Embassy in Kenya and Neosoft offered the software solution for free.
Local and foreign medical experts have been holding teleconference with professors and doctors from Wuhan and Beijing in China, Neusoft Medical Systems Co. Paris, France and the Military hospital in Egypt in conjunction with KNH regarding the Covid-19 epidemic and medical experiences on how to combat the scourge.
“Patients from remote parts of the country will also be able to get their CT scans accessed from Nairobi for consultation and diagnostics, and the results shared within minutes, a great achievement in the countries medical technological advances,” Kamuri added.