GENEVA, Switzerland: Today, City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) announced a scientific visit series for diagnostic experts from Kumasi, Ghana to visit leading institutions, hospitals and labs in Algeria, Kenya and South Africa. These visits are designed to support the strengthening of services by laboratories and medical imaging centres in Kumasi through an immersive, peer-to-peer experience with colleagues across Africa.

"Since C/Can began working with the city of Kumasi in 2018, bolstering cancer diagnostic and care capabilities has been a top priority," says Dr. Susan Henshall, CEO of C/Can. "The ability to strengthen the local health system to provide quality cancer services to the people of Kumasi and the people of Ghana depends not just on having an adequate number of healthcare professionals but on having healthcare professionals who are trained and empowered with the skills to deliver quality cancer services."

Throughout this month, nine healthcare professionals from Kumasi are visiting host institutions for one- to four-week visits focused on medical imaging and pathology. Visiting professionals will take away best practices in quality assurance; observe and learn how activities are implemented and how services are provided at the host institution; and to experience how the pathology and medical imaging teams are integrated into multidisciplinary teams.

"These short fellowships are an opportunity for the C/Can City Pathology and Medical Imaging teams to enhance their technical skills and build long-term professional relationships with other experts across Africa," says Dr. Ernest Osei-Bonsu, Head of the Oncology Directorate at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and member of the C/Can City Executive Committee in Kumasi.

"The practical support will not only benefit the individuals taking part in the program, but will have a wider impact on the city as the knowledge and skills gained will be shared with their peers back in Kumasi."

In a first-time cooperation, four participants from hospitals in Kumasi are being hosted by the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa from 28 February to 25 March; two participants visited the Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire (CHU) Bab El Oued in Algiers, Algeria from 6 - 10 March; and three participants will be hosted by Pathologists Lancet Kenya in Nairobi, Kenya from 21 - 31 March.

With the support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the scientific visits build on C/Can's ongoing work with local teams in Kumasi to enhance the city's diagnostic capacities.

Strengthening the skills and competencies of health care workers is a key component of C/Can's ongoing projects in Kumasi, and a core priority across C/Can's network of cities. The scientific visits form part of C/Can's wider capacity development opportunities, which include peer-exchange and support, workshops, fellowships, knowledge-sharing and consensus-building meetings, as well as C/Can's TeleECHOTM programme.

"As we work with partners to transform cancer diagnostics in low-income countries, engaging and supporting the local health professionals who are working to deliver care to patients is important to ensure programs are truly sustainable, " says Sophie Bussmann-Kemdjo, Regional Director for Africa and Europe at C/Can."Through these exchanges, not only are professionals developing new skills that will benefit patients, new relationships are forming across the continent – from Kumasi, to our newest Challenge City, Nairobi."

The scientific visits will continue, with additional teams from Kumasi scheduled to complete short fellowships in the coming months.

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Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of City Cancer Challenge Foundation (C/Can).

About City Cancer Challenge Foundation (C/Can) 

C/Can supports cities around the world as they work to improve access to equitable, quality cancer care. Since its launch in 2017 by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), C/Can has developed a new model of addressing access to cancer care that, for the first time, leverages the city as a key enabler in a health systems response to cancer. More information