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WORLD GASTROENTEROLOGY NEWS OCTOBER 2018
Editorial | Expert Point of View | Gastro 2018 | WDHD News | WGO & WGOF News | WGO Global Guidelines | Calendar of Events
Reflections from Rwanda
Endoscopy Week 2017
The Rwanda Society for Endoscopy
(RSE) hosted the first Rwanda Endoscopy
Week in October, 2017. The
week was a collaborative effort between
members of the RSE and USA
gastroenterology teams from Dartmouth
Hitchcock Medical Center in
New Hampshire and the Brigham and
Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts.
These relationships formed through
the Human Resources for Health
program and a series of bilateral international
physician exchanges. The
Rwandan Society for Endoscopy was
founded in 2016 with the intention of
furthering GI care in the country and
developing a structured gastroenterology
fellowship in Rwanda. The goals
of Rwanda Endoscopy Week were
to provide direct patient care, train
providers in therapeutic endoscopic
skills, and advance gastroenterology as
a subspecialty in Rwanda.
The week began in Kigali where
the teams met before dispersing to
multiple sites across the country. The
group from the USA included six GI
physicians, two nurses, two endoscopy
Hands on training at Rwanda Military Hospital
in Kigali
technicians and a biomedical engineer.
The Rwandan Society for Endoscopy
included fifteen physicians and eighteen
nurses, but many more Rwanda
physicians and nurses with an interest
in GI also participated. Rwanda Endoscopy
Week was broadly advertised
to the public through national media
and to referring providers at district
hospitals. Combined USA/Rwandan
teams were deployed across Rwanda
to the four major hospitals with endoscopic
capabilities (RMH, CHUK,
Gisenyi Hospital and CHUB). GI
consultation was completed on the
hundreds of patients referred for
endoscopy.
The efforts were strengthened by
the inclusion of a complete endoscopy
Cristina Rutherford, MD
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, USA
Shikama Felicien, MD
Ruhengeri Referral Hospital, Rwanda
The goals of Rwanda
Endoscopy Week were
to provide direct patient
care, train providers in
therapeutic endoscopic
skills, and advance
gastroenterology as a
subspecialty in Rwanda.
The first ERCP done in Rwanda, at CHUK by
Prof. Stuart Gordon