Increasing Opportunities for Trainees to Engage in Global Health Radiology: Radiology In Training

Arriving in Africa as a trainee was eye-opening. As I vis­ited different hospitals and clinics along the islands of Cape Verde, I experienced firsthand the heartbreak of scarcity, broken equipment, and empty staff rooms. Pa­tients traveled hours by foot, filling hot and humid hall­ways and lobbies for a single scan from our portable US machine. The spectrum of emotions ran from joy watch­ing numerous young pregnant women in their 3rd tri­mester see their baby for the first time, to extreme sadness diagnosing an older woman with invasive cervical cancer. Going in, I had expected to read cases and learn about diseases that I did not see in my U.S.-based medical train­ing. What I learned instead were life lessons in leader­ship, diversity, diplomacy, and charity. I experienced the compassion of working with a diverse group of radiology team members to overcome adversities and collectively care for the patient. I was privileged to see radiology's role in globalized health care, and how radiology contributes to a larger system of services. © 2021 Radiological Society of North America Inc.. All rights reserved.