I am on a mission to establish interventional radiology training program in Rwanda. Road to IR project has successfully started in Tanzania almost a decade ago, trained a dozen of interventional radiologists in the east Africa so far. Including one of Rwanda's own Ivan. Ivan had a tragic motor vehicle accident that disabled him from continuing to serve the population as the first and only interventional radiologist in Rwanda. We are planning to do a medical procedure for Ivan to help his recovery. We will start laying the groundwork for creating a interventional radiology program in Rwanda just like the one we successfully did in Tanzania.
Possibly entire 14.7 million people of Rwanda and many millions more in the region of west Africa.
Road to IR has successfully launched many years ago in Tanazania thanks to the gracious support from groups like Doximity. This is not a one time only medical mission, but a truly a mission that helps self supporting the local communities/countries in Africa.
We traveled to Kigali, Rwanda as a part of Road2IR trip. We thank Doximity foundation for the supporting the trip by covering the air fare. Rwanda is booming in economy with lots of potential for its own medical system. Currently, interventional radiology is at its very early stage. But they have lots of talented physicians in training. We were able to help many patients with central venous occlusion, biliary obstruction, urinary tract obstruction, pediatric patients with disabling venous malformation utilizing minimally invasive technique. The two IR fellows and a few of the radiology residents in training were exposed to lots of different procedures that they didn't have expose to. After our trip, we are continue to be in touch with the Rwandan trainees and discuss any interesting cases. We will continue to support interventional radiology specialty to thrive in Rwanda.
