Cardiac CT course will be passed on by attendees

Siemens applications specialist CT Dan Gibbons (left) and BIR cardiac CT course director Dr Ed Nicol (right) discuss real-life cardiac CT case examples with visiting radiology delegates from medical institutions in Iraq.

The British Institute of Radiology (BIR), with technical support from Siemens Healthcare, ran a cardiac CT course for visiting radiology professionals from Iraq.  The BIR works in partnership with The Baghdad Medical College, while The Baghdad Teaching Hospital in Iraq is funded by the UK Department for International Development and managed by the British Council.  The four-day course delivered training on the skills required to produce and interpret clinical cases and included the study of 150 cases using the syngo.via imaging workstation application. 

“Cardiovascular disease remains one of the world’s leading causes of premature death and the figures from Iraq show it is no different to the rest of the world,” said course director Dr Ed Nicol, consultant cardiologist at Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust.  “The ability of cardiovascular CT to detect coronary artery disease non-invasively allows early detection or exclusion of CAD and appropriate primary and secondary prevention strategies to be put in place to address this issue.  Training senior colleagues from the Baghdad Medical College and Teaching Hospital will allow them to pass these skills on to colleagues throughout Iraq and put them in a stronger position to address the growing global epidemic of cardiovascular disease.”

See the full report on page 4 of the December 2011 issue of RAD Magazine.