World Radiography Day/International Radiology Day 2018
Today, November 8, 2018 is World Radiography Day/International Radiology Day, and commemorates the 123rd Anniversary of the discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, who has been globally acclaimed as the Father of Radiography. This annual event is hosted worldwide in recognition of the achievements in medical imaging and seeks to promote radiography and heighten public awareness on the important contribution that diagnostic imaging and radiation therapy are making to modern health care.
Since this discovery in 1895, which impacted significantly on the medical arena, technological advances have been recorded and specialties now include conventional radiography (used to take images of the skeletal system, chest abdomen, digestive and urinary systems); computed tomography (CT) (computer linked images of different areas of the body taken at different angles); magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) produces images by the interaction of magnetic fields and radio waves; nuclear medicine (radiopharmaceuticals used for diagnosis; radiotherapy where high doses of radiation are used to kill cancer cells and shrink tumours); and ultra-sonography (use of high frequency sound waves to produce images of soft tissue).
The Ministry of Public Health, Guyana, wishes to take this opportunity to salute all our radiographers, radiologists and other professional related personnel for the tremendous job that they are doing for our Guyanese citizens across the ten Administrative regions of our country. The Ministry recognizes the wide-reaching responsibilities your job entails to ensure that the images are taken correctly, that the information provided is accurately captured and most importantly that the overall safety of the patients undergoing a radiographic procedure is assured. Our patients’ well-being is totally dependent on the reliability of your imaging and so today, we at the Ministry wish to compliment you for your invaluable contribution in medical imaging.
As mentioned above, important advances have been made and our Radiographers and Radiologists as well as our population can be assured that the Ministry is committed to ensuring that they receive the requisite training in the respective fields so that optimum patient care can be achieved. In both the Public and Private Sector of Health, we have specialist personnel for each of the areas referred to, but human resource is a component that is vital to our sustainability in the health sector, and so I wish to encourage our core of Radiology and radiography professionals to promote the profession and spread the word to our young graduates that this field can be a viable and specialized alternative career in which they can contribute to the betterment of human life. They can play a vital role in providing information to aid in the medical diagnoses and treatment of diseases and patients’ condition.
Incidentally, we are also celebrating today the 7th International Day of Radiology 2018, where the theme for this year is Cardiac Imaging. The intent this year is to highlight the increasingly vital role that radiologists in cardiac care are playing in assisting with diagnosis and follow-up care of patients in wide-ranging cases of cardiac pathology. Here again, the Ministry wishes to pay its compliments to this corps of radiologists, because the incidence of NCDs is high; more specifically a significant percentage of our residents are suffering from cardiac and cardiovascular diseases. So, we want to celebrate with our radiologists and to charge you to continue to enhance your skills so that our imaging techniques are sharpened, and we can thereby impact on the mortality and morbidity of our cardiac patients thru detection, diagnosis and management, and increase the quality of care and treatment of our cardiac patients.
Let me reiterate that medical imaging is an integral part of our health care team, and as we celebrate today and beyond, let us show our appreciation for the imaging fraternity, and the valuable contribution they are making to safe patient care and improving understanding of the role and purpose radiography and radiology play in the health care continuum. Let us maintain or rather improve the standard of our images and deliver quality radiotherapy services to our Guyanese nation.
Happy World Radiography Day/International Radiology Day to all.