KATH’s telemedicine centre to treat breast cancer

The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) has inaugurated a new telemedicine centre to enhance efficient diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

It is a product of years of collaboration between the hospital and the University of Michigan Medical School in the United States (US).

The University had been working closely with KATH over the past eight years in the areas of breast cancer treatment, research, training and capacity building of doctors, nurses and other medical staff to improve the quality of care and service delivery.

Dr Baffour Awuah, Medical Director of the Hospital, expressed gratefulness to the Americans for the support.

He said the partnership in research and capacity building had been most beneficial to doctors at the hospital.

Many, according to him, could now undertake basic diagnosis and design appropriate treatment for patients using the right drugs. He said the facility was trying to be proactive in dealing with breast and other cancers.

Dr Awuah said having the centre proves that a developing country could work together with an advanced country to bring quality health care to its people.

He stated that the facility would strengthen multi-disciplinary management of the disease and would be scaled up to include the treatment and management of other cancers.

Professor Lisa Newman, leader of the US team, described it as a dream come true, saying it would significantly help in the fight against the breast cancer menace in Africa.