By Isaac Arkoh
Cape Coast, Oct. 17, GNA – Ghana-Norway collaborative summer school on Medical Physics and Radiography opened for 80 beneficiaries at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) on Monday.
The sixth edition of the Ghana-Norway Summer School (GNSS) is one of the major activities under the Norwegian Partnership Programme for Global Academic Cooperation (NORPART) Project.
The five-day programme is held annually at different locations in Ghana for students and practitioners of Medical Physics, Radiography, Radiation Protection and related fields.
This year’s programme is on the theme: “Emergence of New Technologies in Diagnostic Medical Imaging.”
GNSS seeks to increase the mobility of Medical Physics and Radiography students, and academic staff at partner institutions, offer quality training, and internationalisation at the levels of Master and PhD programmes in partner institutions.
It is spearheaded by the Medical Physics Department of the School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences, University of Ghana (UG), and the Physics Department of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
It was funded by the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (Diku).
Topics covered vary from year to year, as Lecturers with academic and clinical backgrounds recruited from partner institutions facilitate the programme.
This year’s school will involve a series of lectures and hands-on practical sessions at the UCC School of Medical Sciences and Radiology Department of the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital.
Participants would be issued certificates at the end of the training and earn continuous professional development (CPD) credit points from the Allied Health Professions Council (AHPC), Ghana, which is a requirement for Allied Health Professionals to renew their license as a critical tool for promotion in their careers.
At a brief opening ceremony, Prof. Joseph Richmond Fianko, Dean of the Graduate School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences at the University of Ghana Atomic Campus and on behalf of Ghana, appreciated the partner institutions for their commitment.
He stated that the programme had over the years enriched the knowledge of many students to contribute to the health care delivery within the diagnostic radiology environment.
Buttressing the significance of the programme, he stated that the first Medical Physicist employed at the University of Ghana Medical Centre, Mr. Simon Mensah Amoh was a beneficiary of the exchange programme under NORPART.
“It is believed that this collaboration would help to develop the human resources needed to advance the cause of reliable diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine, Radiotherapy, and Radiography services in Ghana and Africa.
“This partnership would also help to provide quality health care delivery and increase the momentum to place medical physics and other allied health services at its frontiers in Ghana, contributing to the socioeconomic development of the country thereof,” he added.
For the Norwegian group, Prof Catherine De Lange Davies, a physicist with the Norwegian University, expressed satisfaction with the high level of patronage and pledged to sustain the academic relationship for the benefits of all.
GNA