Partnering with BAYER to deliver POCUS training programme in Ghana

We are delighted to announce that we are partnering with BAYER to deliver this year's Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) training programme in Ghana.

Lack of access to diagnostic tests for the world’s poorest populations has recently been highlighted in the Lancet Commission on Diagnostics’ report. It is an important barrier to achieving the WHO goal of Universal Health Coverage and Health for All.

One of the ten recommendations in the report is widening access to Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS), i.e. ultrasound performed by clinicians at the patient's bedside, assisting clinical examination.

In Ghana, in keeping with the above, there is a severe shortage of radiologists and sonographers, especially in emergency care and peripheral hospitals and clinics. POCUS can help alleviate this lack of access to ultrasound. However, currently there is no quality assured POCUS training programme in Ghana.

There is a high demand for training, yet insufficient in-country expertise to develop this without external collaboration and resources.

To address this, the department of Medicine at the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho, Ghana, approached us in 2019 to co-design and develop a POCUS training programme.

Following successful delivery of a pilot course in 2021, we are now progressing to the next stage of our POCUS training and implementation partnership.

With the help from BAYER this year, we will deliver quality assured and affordable training to 12 novice operators from general practice and various specialities in the public health service in Ghana.

We will also train four participants from our 2021 pilot to become certified trainers and develop their next level of expertise.

Thank you so much to BAYER for sponsoring this project