Feedback from Jim Anderson, MD
My ASNR Anne Osborn International Outreach Visiting Professorship occurred in Tanzania between September 20 and Oct 1, 2021. After initially scheduling the trip in May 2020, the pandemic halted those plans and after 2 attempts to reschedule, I was finally able to arrange travel. Dr. Adnan Sadiq at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC) was my contact for the arrangements and host while I taught in his department. The pandemic had significant impact on the staffing and residents, thus the department was short several radiologists and consisted of 8 first year trainees in radiology. This actually made my time there highly productive from a teaching standpoint as all the trainees were eager and essentially at the same level, so lectures and reviews were able to be more trainee level specific.
Dr. Sadiq and the international office at KCMC have a nice set up for accommodating visiting professors with housing in a nearby gated complex of houses. I enjoyed a house to myself, although my understanding is that during more robust visiting schedules it may be shared with others. Between the generosity of others taking me to try out various restaurants and shopping for meals to make for myself, I was able to sample a variety of local dishes. I thoroughly enjoyed my daily walks to and from the hospital as well as excursions to a local waterfall, coffee producing village, and drive partway around Mount Kilimanjaro, which managed to peek out from the clouds periodically during my 2 weeks.
KCMC has good advanced imaging equipment with a modern CT and 1.5T MRI. Thus, in addition to cases and material I brought, there were current cases to review as teaching material. I would say that the education was a 2-way street with me teaching basic MRI concepts and methods of reviewing CT and MRI cases, while I was learning about advanced TB presentations, basic Swahili, and health care in the setting of limited resources. Asante sana to all the residents and Dr. Sadiq for their gracious hospitality during my stay.
Following my 2 weeks teaching, my wife flew over to join me, for a 10 day safari at Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro crater, and two sites in the Serengeti. Feeling very fortunate to experience highlights of the Wildebeest Mara River crossing, lions mating, close encounters with cheetah and leopards, fantastic hosts at all camps we stayed at, and more animals than I ever imagined. Still sifting through the nearly 4000 images I captured, but here are some of my favorites.
