The Vice Chancellor of UHAS, Prof. Lydia Aziato has inaugurated a nine-member Project Implementation Committee to oversee the building of a medical imaging simulation laboratory. Once completed, this lab will be the first of its kind in West Africa. The project is being funded from a 1.4-million-cedi grant awarded by the Ghana Skills Development Fund (GSDF) to a two-person UHAS team, Prof. Lydia Aziato and Dr. Seth Kwadjo Angmorterh as co-principal investigators.

The Committee members are: Prof. Lydia Aziato, Dr. Seth Angmorterh, Dr. Huseini Alidu, Mr. Felix Eduful De-Corsah, Mr. Patrick de Souza, Arc. Ruth Ayittey, Mr. George Asante, Mr. Kodjo Baidoo, and Mrs. Victoria Quartson (Secretary).

The simulation lab is a specially designed to provide immersive learning experiences for healthcare practitioners and students, and also allow learners to practice and develop clinical expertise, without any risk to themselves or their patients.

Dr. Seth Kwadjo Angmorterh, Co-Principal Investigator and Project Coordinator, briefing the committee, said the Department of Medical Imaging, established in 2017/2018 academic year, has been fraught with lack of radiology equipment for clinical training; this challenge has impacted negatively on the clinical competency of students who sometimes have to travel all the way to Accra, Kumasi and other cities to use other hospitals for clinical training. He added that the challenge has also impacted negatively on research in UHAS as a university that envisions becoming a pre-eminent research and practically oriented health educational institution.

He said the department currently needs an MRI machine, fluoroscopy machine, and a C-arm machine to augment studies, but these are incredibly expensive; hence the need to establish a Medical Imaging Simulation lab to virtually house all of this equipment for training.

Mr. Kojo Baidoo, Managing Partner at All-Tech Engineering, the service provider, said the adaptive educational technological environment will make teaching and learning seamless while safeguarding students against exposure to radiation.

Inaugurating the Committee, Prof. Aziato, Principal Investigator and Chair of the nine-person committee, reminded the members of the terms of reference, which include: overseeing the execution of the building of the proposed lab, ensuring timely report submission to the funder, and ensuring quality installation of devices, among others.