by Lu Duobao
VICTORIA, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Sun Zhanguo, a radiology expert from China, never thought that one day he would write a medical book that would prove to be quite a meaningful gift for Seychelles, an African country in the Indian Ocean.
Sun, 36, arrived in the archipelago nation since September 2016 as a member of the Chinese Medical Team that helps contribute to health service delivery in the nation that for years face shortage of doctors.
In the Seychelles Hospital, the largest hospital in the country, a team of foreign medics drawn from China, Ukraine, Cuba and India, among others, have rolled up their sleeves to ensure that Seychellois have access to adequate health care services.
In recent years, the Seychelles government has prioritized rigorous training of local doctors to build its healthcare capacity. An increasing number of Seychelles-born medics who have studied overseas have returned to the Seychelles Hospital for a three-year internship.
Sun noted that absence of imaging data on common ailments in Seychelles hampered the ability of local medics to conduct in-depth research to find possible cure.
So he came up with the idea of building a database of patient cases for teaching purpose. Sun mentioned a fishbone case.
One day, a patient came to the hospital and complained of abdominal pain. The CT scan revealed an infection in the abdominal cavity and liver. "I suspected it to be a fishbone according to my experience and observation, but both the patient and surgeon were skeptical about my opinion and the surgeon treated it as an ordinary abdominal infection," Sun told Xinhua.
"Later on, the patient revisited the surgeon complaining of severe pains and following my advice, the two-centimeter fishbone was removed," he added.
Sun noted that cases of fishbone in abdominal cavity were not rare in the island. "I have documented two cases that can be used by local doctors for reference in case they meet this kind of patients in future."
Over time, Sun had developed a voluminous database for common ailments that could be read easily by local health workers.
CEO of Seychelles Hospital Danny Louange, who later learned of this database Sun was keeping, suggested that Sun write a manual book based on the database so as to provide diagnostic training for local staff.
Apart from his routine busy work schedule, Sun was spending extra time and energy on this idea.
In July this year, just two months before his departure to China when his tenure ends, the book, titled "Seychelles Radiation Cases-Image Analysis and Diagnosis Essentials", was launched in a ceremony graced by Chinese Ambassador to Seychelles, Yu Jinsong and the Seychelles Minister for Health, Jean-Paul Adam.
The manual details the history, distribution and treatment of common ailments in the Indian Ocean country, and covers 400 diseases that are common in Seychelles. The book also contains more than 1,400 high definition images.
The book had went through extensive review by Seychelles Health Research and Ethics Committee. Sun even managed to get Alexander Kovalsky, a famous professor radiologist in Vinnystsia National Pirogov Memorial Medical University in Ukraine, to give the peer review of the book. Prof. Kovalsky liked the book so much that he agreed to write a Foreword for it.
The book is the first medical imaging monograph in the Indian Ocean nation since independence, and also the first book written by a Chinese doctor since 1986 when China started to send Chinese Medical Team to Seychelles.
Olena Kovalska, the director of radiology department at the hospital thinks highly of the book. "This book will be very useful for new radiologists, for the orthopedic doctor, for specialist, for Casualty doctor and for all people who is interested in radiology. " Kovalska said.
(Christine Lagat also contributed to the story)
