International charity organization Rotary International has awarded a $21,000 grant to a Rotary chapter in Park Ridge, IL, to install a basic x-ray system in a Zimbabwe hospital. Rotarians from the chapter, who visited the hospital in January, say the grant will enable them to move forward with their plans to purchase and install the system at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo.
Over the past two years, the Park Ridge Rotarians have been assessing the feasibility of installing a WHIS-RAD basic x-ray system at an African hospital. The project is led by John Vanden Brink, a former medical imaging industry veteran who founded data analysis firm Technology Marketing Group of Des Plaines, IL (now known as IMV Medical Information Division).
The Rotary International grant will cover half of the $41,000 cost of a WHIS-RAD system. The rest of the funds have been raised separately by the Park Ridge chapter.
The group plans to buy the system from Philips Medical Systems of Best, the Netherlands, which along with IMS of Bologna, Italy is one of only two companies that manufacture the WHIS-RAD product. Installation is expected this summer.
The project is the first in which a Rotary chapter has spearheaded the purchase and installation of a WHIS-RAD unit at an African hospital. The Park Ridge chapter hopes the Mater Dei installation will be the first of many similar collaborations between Rotary clubs in Africa and other parts of the world. The chapter estimates that some 80,000 basic x-ray units are needed at developing hospitals internationally.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writersApril 17, 2002
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Rotarians assess need for WHIS-RAD imaging system in Zimbabwe, April 2, 2002
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