Developing Diagnostic Radiology Training in Low Resource Countries

Purpose of Review As interest in global health increases, so does interest in supporting primary care clinicians with global radiology. Concomitant with this are opportunities for radiologists to participate in global health. In this paper we review the types of opportunities available and make recommendations for expanding the global radiology workforce in an ethical and sustainable manner. Recent Findings We review the literature to evaluate capabilities and opportunities. There are too few radiologists in resource-poor countries, and there are also too few training programs. As in many other specialties, most radiology global outreach programs are not set up to provide sufficient longevity and create sustainability. We describe how features of a radiology residency that we helped design in Rwanda will lead to a successful, long-term educational program. Summary In this paper we note the growing interest in and need for global imaging along with the insufficient number of radiologists and radiology training programs in resource- limited countries. We make recommendations for and describe a model of ethical radiology educational outreach.