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Improving health quality.Increasing global impact:
Africa Perspective
Wil Ngwa, PhD
(From Cameroon)
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Some facts about Africa
• Second largest and second most
populous continent in the world
with 54 countries and population:
ca. 1.2 billion
• Over 1 million new cancer cases
and 7 hundred thousand deaths
per year
• Up to 2000 languages; many
languages do not have a word for
cancer due to lack of awareness
• Major inequalities in access to
care, including radiotherapy
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Medical Physics in Africa
• Major shortage of Medical
Physicists
• Medical physicists not
recognized in many countries in
Africa hence major safety
concerns in growing use of
radiation technologies
• Most Medical Physicists in
Africa work in radiotherapy
• Federation for Africa Medical
Physics Organizations
(FAMPO) key professional
society
RT = Radiotherapy
RD = Radiology
NM = Nuclear Medicine
(Source: Federation of African Medical
Physicists Organizations)
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Key Challenges for Africa
• Care• Infrastructure
• Weak healthcare systems
• Education• Limited education and training compounded
by brain drain
• Need for mentorship
• Research• Limited resources and capacity for research
• Outreach: • Limited awareness, policy, public private
partnerships (PPP)
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Opportunities: Africa
• Care• Ongoing initiatives involving Africa
• Medical Physics for World Benefit
• Radiating Hope
• Medical Physicists of the Diaspora
for Africa
• Treat Safely
• Leap-frogging opportunities using
advanced information and
communication technologies:
• Comprehensive Cancer Center in
the Cloud (C4): e-consultation,
second opinion, e-contouring,
remote treatment planning quality
assurance support,
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Opportunities: Africa
• Education• Twinning partnerships between USA
or Canadian and African institutions
• Global Oncology University
• Workshops UPENN-Tanzania
• Award-winning collaborative
online education platform
• Degree programs in plan
• Training by AORTIC, UICC etc
• International Organization for Medical
Physics accredited courses
• Africa Chartrounds
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Opportunities: Africa
• Research• Multi-center clinical trials (e.g. in
hypofractionated radiotherapy)
• Co-mentored research collaborations
• Artificial intelligence
• Monte Carlo simulations
• Implementation research
• Abscopal Radiotherapy
• FAMPO’s Africa Journal of Medical
Physics
• Increasing funding opportunities for
USA-Africa collaborations: e.g. with
NCI center for global health
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Opportunities: Africa
• Outreach• Increased awareness e.g. on cancer
• Outreach to policy makers e.g. on
increased adoption of hypofractionated
radiotherapy in Africa increasing access
and saving billions of dollars
• Outreach to Industry: e.g. PPP to
establish cancer centers in Africa
• Outreach to Diaspora: e.g. turning brain
drain to global health gain
• Outreach to professional societies:
AAPM, ASTRO, ASCO
Hypofractionated RT increase in access
Ngwa et al. 2020 JCO Global Oncology
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Quo Vadis?
• Collaborations are key for global health with Africa
• Future is technology-driven, digital
“It always seems impossible until it is done”, Nelson Mandela
Courtesy Marvel Comics
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Thank you for your attention !
Let’s work together to:
improve health quality
Increase global impact