National Hospital Abuja acquires lodox critical imaging technology

HealthNewsNG.com has exclusively gathered that the National Hospital Abuja has acquired lodox critical imaging technology and has become the first hospital in West Africa to acquire the only medical device in the world that gives high quality full body x-ray scan within 13 seconds.

In an exclusive interview with HealthNewsNG.com Pieter de Beer, chief executive officer of lodox critical imaging technology said the machine has been installed and would soon be officially commissioned for use. 

According to him, Nigeria is the second African country to acquire the technology after South Africa where it originated from and is already being used in several hospitals.

He said: "We are going to have the machine in the National Hospital Abuja. The machine has already been installed; we are just waiting for the opening at the hospital. That would be our first machine in an African country apart from South Africa."

He added that the erratic power situation in Nigeria will not affect the machine more than it affects other medical devices.

"It won’t affect it anymore than it would affect other equipment like any other large medical devices such as the CT devices. Most hospitals have backup generators for that. The only major issue would be the rebooting of the computer.

"Should there be a major power problem the machine will just safely shut down. There is no fear of injuries or anything. And as soon as the power is up, it boots up within a minute or so and is ready to do scans," he told HealthNewsNG.com.

Ja’afar Othman, head of Apeiron Nigeria Limited, lodox's partner in Nigeria said plans are underway to have the technology in each of the the 6 geographical zones of Nigeria.

He said: "There are plans to establish trauma centers in the 6 geographical zones. So we are proposing that they should have a lodox machine at the entrance of each of the emergency units."

He added that the one at the National Hospital Abuja would serve as a model to demonstrate the technology's efficiency and the need to have it in other secondary and tertiary hospitals across Nigeria.

Beer however noted that full integration of the technology into emergency care would require a review of surgeons' emergency procedures.

He said: "Normally they will first do the primary examination of the patient and only after patients are stabilized that they are taken for imaging which may take up to 30 minutes. But with our device, they need to do the imaging first.

"It’s a change in protocol and many trauma surgeons don’t want to do that because we say it works. Although we have many hospitals where it works, every country’s model is different. National Hospital Abuja is the ideal hospital to show how it works.

"You need surgeons here that buy into the product and understand the product; and as soon as they get to know the product is being used in other hospitals, more will buy into it."

He also explained how the Slot scanning-based device helps save cost.

"Cost efficiency is quite important," he said. "It is very important for the hospital to make money but it is also important that they have something that will give them a competitive edge. For our machine, because it is digital, the cost is cheaper than analogue machines because you don’t have to process films and the rest.

"Because our machine is so designed, you don’t need to specifically prepare a lead-shielded room like they do when installing x-ray machines; hence it saves cost.

"The type of patient would let surgeons decide how quickly they want to treat the patient. Many times you need less imaging after you’ve done these scans. 

"If you combine all of that, it is quite a cost-saving solution for the hospital."