From Emergency to Expansion: With IAEA Support, Uganda Recovers and Improves its Radiotherapy Services

Five technical cooperation projects have been launched on the request of the government—beginning in 2012 and continuing through follow-up projects—to provide much-needed equipment, technical support and capacity building. The Agency also supported the procurement of a dual-head gamma camera to replace a former single-head camera, which will radically increase the volume of patients who can be imaged each day. In addition, a medical physicist, a nurse, a technologist and a radiographer have been trained through IAEA-supported technical cooperation fellowships as part of two projects designed to support the NM unit.

Following the breakdown of the UCI’s radiotherapy machine, strengthening and expanding access to radiotherapy was prioritised by the government in its national technical cooperation programme.

In addition to supporting the procurement of one new cobalt-60 machine and the commissioning of a second which was donated by the Government of India, the IAEA has procured specific equipment to allow the introduction of a brachytherapy service for patients with oesophageal cancer and, additionally, organized nine fellowships to help to develop the human resources essential to operate and maintain the new equipment properly. These comprised   four radiotherapy technologists and four medical physicists.

“This Fellowship truly redefined my perceptions and the goals I had, as far as cancer care and management is concerned,” said Ignatius Komakech, an alumnus of the TC Fellowship programme. “The Fellowship training provided me with an in-depth understanding of medical physics, its application in a clinical context, as well as the roles and responsibilities associated with resident medical physicists.”

Charting the path to better outcomes

In 2016, following a series of IAEA advisory missions, the UCI began construction of a new radiotherapy department, with six new bunkers to house teletherapy and brachytherapy machines, as well as modern linear accelerators.  In addition, new support buildings for activities related to cancer treatment, such as operating theatres and nuclear medicine hot labs, are being built.

The large-scale expansion of the UCI, and the corresponding expansion of available services, means that training for more personnel to treat the thousands of patients who will visit the Institute each year is urgently needed.

A national project, launched in January 2020, responds to this need by supporting capacity building for new staff. The project will also support the introduction of new equipment,—including commissioning of the linear accelerator, CT-Simulator and 3D treatment planning system—as well as the provision of retraining opportunities for existing personnel to allow them to capitalise on the potential of the new technologies.

A series of short-term training courses will facilitate the development of new quality assurance systems and procedures, to ensure that safety underpins all activities at the Institute. To promote greater sustainability and to accommodate the increasing demand for trained professionals in Uganda, the project will also support the development of an academic training programme for radiotherapy technologists, and the development of a clinical training scheme for medical physicists based on a syllabus established through the African Regional Cooperative Agreement on Research, Development and Training related to Nuclear Science and Technology (AFRA).