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11.05.2016 Feature Article

‘Ghana is West Africa's leader in medical imaging’

Gamel Sinare, CEO of Agvad Ghana Limited, Accra-GhanaGamel Sinare, CEO of Agvad Ghana Limited, Accra-Ghana
11.05.2016 LISTEN

Ghana’s recent installation of the hi-tech 640 Slice Computerized Tomography (CT) and the ultra-modern Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) equipment at major health facilities around the country now makes it west Africa’s leader in medical imaging technology, giving the country the capability for advanced medical diagnostic services for which citizens of its neigbhours routinely pay expensively to do in the advanced world, Mr. Gamel Sinare, Managing Director of Agvad Ghana Limited, Ghana’s leading medical technology company, tells MARTIN-LUTHER C. KING in this interview. He also opines that promoting citizens’ health through developing quality domestic medical infrastructures is strategic for safeguarding a country’s national security and economic well-being and should, therefore, be top priority for governments in Africa.

Excerpts:
How does Ghana compare to other West African countries in medical imaging equipments?

I would say Ghana is ahead of other West African countries. They are actually catching up but then Ghana still remains ahead. But the good thing is that Ghana’s premier position in this area is actually motivating other West African countries to strive to catch up. Ghana has all the equipment range for medical imaging, from the MRIs, the computer tomography scan, the x-rays, the mammography equipment and the ultra-sound equipment. This is the span of range for imaging equipments. We’ve had these equipments and they have been regularly and consistently upgraded for the past ten years. In the earlier stages, and even now, many patients from the neighboring countries are referred to Ghana, especially for the MRI procedure. When it comes to x-rays and CT scanners, the neighboring countries are also pulling up. But the key focal difference is the MRIs.

Does it mean that the manufacturers are partial towards Ghana such that they send the best of their products to Ghana only?

No, that is not the case. It has to do with the human resource capability of the countries. To have these equipments you should have some caliber of doctors and radiographers to be trained in the use of the equipments. Because most of the neighboring countries are only now catching up, they are now building the human resource for these equipments. Secondly, there are other factors that also play out in the purchase and installation of these equipments. For instance, you need to have steady power supply to be able to effectively utilize these equipments.

President John Dramani Mahama recently commissioned some of your equipments at the University of Ghana Teaching Hospital at Korle-bu to launch Ghana into the list of a small but elite group of nations worldwide that currently have this equipment as part of their medical infrastructure. What are the equipments all about?

The 640 Slice CT and the MRI machines are both the latest in the world of scanning technology, made by Toshiba, or more appropriately Toshiba-Shimadzu-Fuji of Japan, which global technological giant Agvad is the sole representative of in Ghana. Ghana is actually the third country in Africa to have this 640 Slice CT equipment. The equipment does not only diagnose, it also predicts.

What specifically do the machines do?
They scan almost everything in the human body. And, like I said, it does not only diagnose, it also predicts. This is why it is also vital requirement in research. It also helps in resolving a lot of cases. Having them in here Ghana is of enormous benefit. So instead of flying to America or Europe for sundry advanced medical diagnosis, these equipment bring the same quality of technological service home to, and within easier reach of, needy Ghanaians and our neighbors within our West Africa subregion.

How do you explain to the man in the street who does not understand the technical intricacies of the machines the difference between these equipments and the usual scanning, and or x-ray, machines normally seen at hospitals?

This is very different from an x-ray machine in that it easily slices the human body into 640 slides in one rotation of less than one minute. Which tells you that this is a more advanced machine with capability for a more detailed examination of various organs of the human body, and that in much less time compared to the normal x-ray machine.

Given the social and economic benefits of having such high-end and hi-tech medical equipment locally available, how do you advice Ghana’s neighbours who are yet to invest in similar medical facilities for the benefit of their citizens?

What I’ll tell them is to prioritize. Because every country need to have a quality medical infrastructure to safeguard the health and well-being of its citizens. Countries like Nigeria, which I should say is the richest country in west Africa, need urgently to invest in such machines for the benefit of their peoples. Indeed, a country like Nigeria should be leading Ghana in the acquisition of this kind of technology. But ironically, Ghana is ahead in this area.

Talking about Nigeria, has Agvad made moves to exploit the huge benefits accruable from entering such a vast market?

There’s an agent in Nigeria already.
An agent of Agvad’s?
No! It’s an independent agent of Toshiba’s. But when Toshiba sets up its west and central African hub here in Ghana, such agents will be covered by Agvad from here in Accra. Already we are talking to some of the agents telling them what we have done in Ghana in the hope that they would try and replicate same in their various countries.

Tell us about Agvad?
Agvad is specialized in medical imaging. And we represent Fuji, Toshiba and Shimadzu of Japan. Agvad has been in business for quite a long time, first as Sinar Medical, and now Agvad. We’ve been around for over 30 years. Under Sinar Medical we were into all medical appliances, until the company changed to Agvad when we specialized only in medical imaging. Because the medical field is too wide; you’ll be doing everything. It’s just like, say, a mechanic who says he can service all types of cars. That will be impossible. You either specialize in one area and be good at it. This is what has made us the best in our field. The key is not only to sell; selling is easy. But the training and the service is the key, that’s what will get you to the top. It’s expensive to be able to train good engineers with good management skills etcetera. Most companies do not invest in that. But we have invested heavily in that area.

When you talk about training, what exactly do you mean?

Basically, it’s to develop the human resource of the organization, in this case, Agvad. And this has do with our technical staff. These equipments are high-end technical and research-based equipments. And before you’ll be able to install you need to know the structure of the equipments. And to handle the equipment you have to be trained and re-trained by the manufacturers. Because they keep on updating the technology of the equipment. So our engineers, first of all, are graduates, then we send them to the manufacturers facilities at the factory in Japan to be trained on the equipments’ theoretical framework and practical engineering on how to operate and install the machines, including the maintenance aspects of these equipments.

Do you do this for all your clients?
Basically what we do is to first train our in own in-house staff to then impact the customer’s technical support team. What we do is to give them the first-hand call-of- point where the customer’s engineers and technical team members can actually identify the issues with the equipment so they can provide solutions straightaway on-hand because they understand the equipment. We also do train all the users including the radiologists, the doctors, and the radiographers on how to use the equipment to maximize the benefits of the equipment such that they could get the best out of the equipment and patient-care is elevated. Because most of the time the equipment has several parameters of operation. But then if you don’t do continuous training of the users then the equipment is actually under-utilised. That’s why we have this programme we call train-the-trainers, whereby we train the elite group in the institutions, specifically the radiographers, the doctors and the radiologists; and, continue to train the new staff as well. Because most of them are from government institutions and have huge staff who are sometimes on shift basis. So you have to make sure that, first, the users are really trained to ensure that the equipments are used correctly and maintained rightly.

How do you assess the quality of medical equipments in Ghana and West Africa?

I think Ghana is well-equipped. Well, in terms of imaging, I’ll say, compared to where we were ten years ago. Ten years ago, no. But now, I think Ghana is well-equipped. And being well-equipped means that we have the state-of-the-art equipments for imaging. Basically, you can see a paradigm shift, and this is actually to the credit of the current administration in the country. There is a new focal change for the ministry of health which is geared towards lifting all healthcare practitioners and institutions in the country. The focus now is to ensure that we have new medical equipments that are state-of-the-art and are paramount in all developed nations. The essence of medical imaging is to ensure that you can diagnose ahead of an intervention. So the idea is to be able to identify any situation that may occur in the body so that the medical practitioners can then decide what kind of intervention to give. The new focus is to ensure that, one, you can actually see through what we call the multi-slice system through the cross-sectional images at minute details. And, two, to reduce the dosage that you are going to give to the patient that is from the x-ray radiation.

How are these state-of-the-art equipments impacting on general state of Ghana’s health sector?

The impact has been extremely tremendous. They are actually helping to save human lives. Because what’s happening is that in most cases, situations that surgeons would have had to operate to identify a problem before thinking of an intervention to resolve it, now they get to identify and diagnose the problem ahead of time. And then a team of doctors or surgeons get to decide based on the images that they see. So they actually provide a straighthand and on-point solution, and this is saving a lot of human lives. So with this new intervention of imaging equipments, for example more victims of tremor and accident cases now survive because we can get to access what had happened and know how best to help them.

Is Agvad thinking along the lines of attracting Fuji, Toshiba and Shimadzu to start assembling these equipments in Ghana?

Yes, some thoughts have gone in that direction. But that is part of our middle- to long-term goals. We actually intend to attract for manufacturing, because we believe that would be a better way to share the technology at the manufacturing stage and also to develop our industrial base in Ghana and in West Africa.

Any time-lines?
Yes, but the time-lines are also based on our targets for excpansion.

What are those?
What we are looking at is a five-year time period. We want to be present in all district, and town healthcare institutions having at least one or two health imaging equipments. At that stage we will know that we are ready for an industrial base.

Apart from medical imaging, what other areas of medicine is Agvad into?

Medical imaging is actually our prime and major interest. We do a little bit on infant care, precisely incubator systems. We represent Wehr, which is a leading German manufacturer. But that is not our core interest. We also plan to set up a medical imaging center.

Could you elaborate on that?
Because we sell the equipment, all state-of-the-art equipment, we decided that we should set up an imaging center that should offer scanning and training services. It will be something like a research center that should be first of its kind in West Africa. And it’s going to be in two parts. The core vision is to ensure that the clientele that want to have immediate or quick healthcare solution to their problem can walk in and immediately be diagnosed. Secondly, it will seek to develop a biomedical engineering capacity for the country. And so to have the equipments there, we can then invite students from universities around to have practical, hands-on training for students with engineering background. It will also avail students of the School of health and Allied Studies an opportunity to have a practical hands-on training in radiography. So the focus is to provide healthcare and also to train these two target groups.

Are you collaborating with some foreign partners on that project?

No, it’s going to be 100 per cent Ghanaian.
What’s the future like for Agvad?
We intend to stick to our 5-year development plan. We want to expand and ensure that our clientele, our customer-base are actually satisfied. And, then, to develop further into the industrial aspect of that plan. We also plan to provide a high-end private healthcare diagnostic center.

Who is Gamel Sinare?
Gamel Sinare is like any other Ghanaian, the son of Alhaji Sallah Saleh Sinare. My mother is an Egyptian. My mother is the first Egyptian woman to be married to a Ghanaian. She arrived Ghana when it was still the Gold Coast. My father was an adviser to the late President Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President. I did part of my primary school in Ghana and continued in Egypt. I had my university education in the United States of America, from where I came back with a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). My mother actually had some misgivings on my going to America, because going to the States evoked fears that I may not come back. But I did come back. With the blessing of my parents, this pharmacy started as a family business but, now we have veered into medical engineering. And today as you see, we are the better for it.

I am married with four children.

Gamel Sinare.....making A Point During The ChatGamel Sinare.....making A Point During The Chat

Sinare...gesticulates As He Makes A Point During The ChatSinare...gesticulates As He Makes A Point During The Chat

Sinare..stressing A Point During The ChatSinare..stressing A Point During The Chat

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