Radiology leads the drive to save time, and lives – and time could mean the difference between life and death

It is generally accepted that time is money. In medicine, time could mean the difference between life and death. As a branch of medicine, Radiology assist in saving time to achieving accurate diagnosis, thereby saving lives.

Radiology uses a lot of computers, machines and a lot of complex equipment. In the country we have excellent Radiologists and equally good machines. We’re exposed to a broad spectrum of disease profile to always learn from. Unlike places like the US, we’re unfortunately not yet widely exposed to Artificial Intelligence (AI) which I believe will lead us to bridging the gap in terms of speeding up diagnoses, especially for centres that do not yet have a full time Radiologist on site. In Radiology we’ve been doing “remote medicine” for a while. With advancements in roll-out of high-speed internet we are able to swiftly send image data between locations.

While we are still warming up to AI in medicine, as you may be aware robotics in healthcare is readily available  – even more so in Gauteng.

A family member was in a car accident in a remote farm area. X-Ray machines come in various stages of sophistication. Where she was at the time of the injury, there is no CT scanner. As they moved her around between three hospitals there was a risk of exacerbating her spinal injury. But if the accident happened here in Gauteng, she would have been within access of a selection of medical centres, with a myriad equipment to diagnose the injury accurately, first time.

It is for this reason that I am passionate about the democratisation of healthcare. This is what I believe the National Health Insurance (NHI) will help make possible. 

In Radiology we interact with all specialists – physicians, paediatricians, surgeons, ophthalmologists, the lot, to help reach speedier and accurate diagnosis. We play an important background supportive role in medicine.

It is the one field of medicine, among others, that has to really embrace technology.

In the Covid-19 era, many elective operations had to be cancelled or postponed. At our Radiology centre we strived to avoid interruption and continued providing support to general healthcare.

The number of patients who entered the hospital for elective procedures were significantly reduced.

What are the benefits of Radiology to modern medicine, you ask?

As we know that medicine has advanced and is constantly changing, based on evidence, and is always improving, so that we can improve patient outcomes, reducing patient mortality, Radiology assists by giving imaging that guides in terms of giving accurate diagnosis. The intervention that the clinician will give will thus be targeted and assist in leading to speedier recovery.

If we suspect that a patient has Covid-19 with clot formation (pulmonary embolus), for example, we do a CT, to pick up the clot in the lungs timeously. We’re then able to implement treatment – blood thinning medication if necessary, in an opportune manner so that the patient will respond or improve quicker.

Is there room for error, however slight? Healthcare in general, we’re trained in keeping with the first rule when taking the Hippocratic Oath: Do no harm. Whether in imaging or surgery, the first motivation is to do no harm. If you’re uncertain, you can order further tests. You have to strive for diagnostic accuracy at all times  – Radiology helps in that.

Together with clinical examination, pathology where blood samples are tested, doctors put all that information together and the physician designs tailor-made treatment for each patient.

I did my Master's in medico legal cases and Litigation in Radiology SA. When I did my research, I found that doctors are taken to task for misdiagnosis or even a late diagnosis. But doctors, being human, can make errors. The expectation is not to repeat the same [mistake] with every patient. The error rates are monitored and actually minimal. There are certain measures and training programmes put in place to ensure this.

There are courses and conferences held to assist in firming up knowledge as new information and clinical evidence becomes available.

I don’t know any medical school in university that doesn’t teach Radiology. If time is of the essence in modern medicine, Radiology leads the drive to save time, and lives.

• Dr Aobakwe Segwe is a Radiologist in private practice