Demand for minimally invasive treatments continues to rise around the world. Interventional radiology (IR) in particular has numerous advantages over more traditional surgical options, often significantly decreasing associated morbidity and mortality. Examples include image guided abscess drainage, nephrostomy and biliary tube placement, uterine fibroid embolization, and embolization in the setting of trauma, GI bleed, or postpartum hemorrhage. However, many low income countries have limited or complete lack of IR services. According to the WHO over 4 billion people globally lack access to diagnostic imaging, with likely more than 5 billion lacking access to IR. As of 2017, there was not a single interventional radiologist in Tanzania, leaving a population equivalent to that of California and New York combined without access to a broad range of life-saving treatments. Over the past four years, the “Tanzania Interventional Radiology Initiative” has initiated East Africa’s first IR training program, training the first generation of interventional radiologists in the country. Africa’s first Master of Science in IR curriculum at Muhimbili University in Dar es Salaam was officially announced in October 2019 ( https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/yales-tanzania-interventional-radiology-initiative-approved-for-msc-program/ ). An overview of the program was published in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology in 2019 ( https://www.jvir.org/article/S1051-0443(19)30687-6/pdf ) with a 5-year update published in 2024 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvir.2024.03.015). In 2025 the government of Tanzania supported Road2IR expanding to teach neurointerventional procedure, including treatment for acute ischemic strokes caused by large vessel occlusions. I returned to Tanzania in January of 2026 to focus on teaching stroke procedures. I would like to return in October of 2026 to continue teaching stroke interventions, as well as percutaneous spine biopsies.
While this program most immediately serves the 60 million people living in Tanzania, training IR physicians locally will have regional impact. One of the first IR fellows who recently graduated from the program in Tanzania is from Rwanda, and returned there as the first IR physician in the country. He began the process of expanding these efforts there. Other graduates have started training programs in Nigeria and Uganda.
I believe that expanding the many obvious benefits IR already provides to patients in high income nations can be quickly expanded to billions of people around the world in low income nations by training young physicians locally. IR provides a broad range of life-saving procedures and can have an immediate impact, as has been demonstrated in Tanzania over the past several years. I want to support and expand these efforts and contribute to building IR services, and starting neurointerventional services in Africa, potentially reaching over one billion people who currently have no access to these important treatments. I traveled on a mission to Tanzania in October 2023 and 2024 and introduced spine interventions to treat pain caused by spine fractures and percutaneous image guided bone biopsies. In January of 2026 I introduced spine biopsies, and taught techniques of diagnostic cerebral angiography and stroke interventions. In my return visit I would like to expand training in those techniques.
This was my fourth mission to Dar es Salaam. The first two I worked at Muhimbili National Hospital and the second two at Muhimbili Orthopedic Institute. The ground work done by the Tanzania Stroke Project and Road2IR came to fruition when we did the first in Tanzania stroke large vessel occlusion mechanical thrombectomy. The fellows have made tremendous progress in their skills and knowledge since my previous visit in January 2026. They continue to perform spine biopsies and stroke interventions using the education from the January visit. The patients, staff, and physicians are incredibly appreciative of the teaching. They epitomize the Swahili word karibu, which means “welcome”.
