The Kilimanjaro School of Radiology
The Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center
The Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College
The Kilimanjaro School of Radiology
The Kilimanjaro School of Radiology opened in 1993, under the direction of Dr. Helmut Diefenthal. The two-year residency program at the school trains Tanzanian Assistant Medical Officers in Radiology. Those accepted for the program already have three years of formal medical training, five years of practical work, and two more years of training to earn the title of Assistant Medical Officer. There is a vital need for trained medical officers in Tanzania -- a country of 38 million people. Most of the students go on after graduation to eventually work in clinics where there is no radiologist available.
The Radiology Program is a two-year course of study that involves interpreting radiographs and performing radiologic procedures, including ultrasound. Dr. Diefenthal has found that ultrasound is particularly well suited for use in developing countries because of its relative low cost, relative ease of maintenance, and portability -- it requires no installation. It is a method of doing cross-sectional imaging that is widely applicable to many clinical needs.
Since it opened in 1993, the school has graduated 11 classes with a total of 39 Assistant Medical Officers/Radiologists and 4 MD grads who went through a 4-year program. Most of the graduates now work in regional hospitals, and consult and supervise radiology departments in smaller hospitals. Graduate AMO residents have gone to work in Zimbabwe and Zambia.
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The Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center
The Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC) is a 500-bed facility in Moshi, Tanzania, located next to spectacular Mt. Kilimanjaro, and near the Serengeti Plain. Originally built by missionaries in 1971, it is was operated for a time by the Tanzanian Ministry of Health. Today the governing body of KCMC is the Good Samaritan Foundation -- a church organization. KCMC is the second-largest hospital in the country, and is also one of the country's four referral hospitals, handling the northeastern portion of Tanzania. Since it is the only consulting hospital within hundreds of miles, patients come from throughout the region for consultation.
KCMC is caring for an increasing number of patients each year. The current inpatient occupancy is 110 percent. The hospital also sees more than 500 outpatients each day. As a result, the Department of Radiology also has an increased workload, especially in the ultrasound area. Currently, an average of 48 ultrasound and 65 X-ray examinations are performed each day.
The main language spoken at the hospital is Swahili, however, all of the medical personnel speak English, and the records are kept in English. English is the second language of the country, and it is taught in all of the schools.
In 1991, KCMC hosted an international conference, "Ultrasound In Africa." The conference drew 100 attendees, who participated in practical sessions on ultrasound physics and instrumentations, as well as hands-on scanning techniques. Formal lectures were also presented by physicians and professors from Tanzania and other African countries, Europe, and the United States.
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The Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College
In October 1997, the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College opened at the medical center, with an undergraduate training program and a graduate program. Dr. Helmut Diefenthal has also submitted a complete curriculum for a two-year residency in radiology for Assistant Medical Officers. There is also a new four-year residency in radiology for MD's that is similar to a radiology residency in the United States, but does not include a few areas such as magnetic resonance imaging, and does not include the entire spectrum of Interventional Radiology.
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