| dc.description.abstract |
Introduction: diagnostic radiology plays a key role
in healthcare. Proper planning of healthcare
requires accurate and robust data. There´s,
however, paucity of comprehensive figures on
radiological equipment in the African setting. The
goal of this study was to carry out an in-depth
analysis of the registered radiological equipment in
Kenya, a lower middle-income African country, and
compare the findings to published international
data. Methods: data on radiological equipment
were obtained from the Kenya Nuclear Regulatory
Authority and analyzed as units/million of the
population by imaging modality, health service
sector and administrative units. The findings werethen compared to published international data.
Results: there has been an overall increase in the
number of radiological equipment in comparison to
data published in 2013, with a relatively uniform
distribution of resources across all eight regions.
General radiography is the most available modality
at 24.5 units/million with the majority of the
equipment owned privately, while the public sector
(9.6 units/million) has less than a half of the WHO
recommendation of 20 units/million. Accessibility to
computerized tomography (CT) scan, fluoroscopy
and mammography in the public sector closely
mirrors that of South Africa. On the contrary,
positron emission tomography-computerized
tomography (PET-CT) is the least-resourcedmodality and is currently only available in the
private sector. Conclusion: the increased number
and homogenous distribution of radiological
resources can largely be attributed to the Managed
Equipment Services project launched by the
national government in 2016. More needs to be
done with regards to availability of PET/CT scanners
and general radiography equipment in the public sector. |
en_US |