Two consultants who work at Musgrove Park Hospital are playing a leading role in taking new medical tech to Vietnam.

Dr Andy Lowe, who works at Musgrove and acts as the Royal College of Radiologists' travelling professor, led a mission to help educate medical professionals in the developing country. He said:

"The UK has never really had any historic ties with Vietnam, but we contacted the country’s health service and offered to supply a team to run a radiology conference, which was gladly accepted.

“There was a real Somerset feel to our visit, with Dr Joanna Brown, also a radiology consultant at Musgrove, taking part as well. My fellow Royal College travelling professor, Helen O’Brien, has also worked as a trainee at Musgrove in the past.”

The team focussed on introducing MRI scanning technology to Vietnam's healthcare system. They held a talk in Ho Chi Minh City for 40 people, which 250 attended - making it the biggest of its kind held by the college in decades.

Andy said: "Word must have quickly spread that we were in town as an incredible 250 people actually turned up to learn all about MRI. The Royal College told us that it was in fact the largest overseas course it had run in the last decade.

“Our radiology colleagues in Vietnam welcomed us with open arms and looked after us really well while we were there. English isn’t spoken that much in Vietnam, especially amongst those over 25, so we had to have our course translated, which was a little clunky, but we got through it.

“As MRI was invented in Oxford, we naturally have a lot of expertise in the UK, and we wanted to share our knowledge with our Vietnamese colleagues, so we could help them improve confidence in interpreting and reporting MRI scans – something that can really advance healthcare.

“We really were impressed with the level of knowledge of radiologists in Ho Chi Minh City as some had really advanced skills, such as experience in cardiac MRI. This meant we could run a more advanced course, although there were still a number of ‘beginners’ in the audience so we tailored some of our sessions to help them.

“We covered MRI scans of all areas of the body, from head to toe, including brain imaging, musculoskeletal, paediatrics, chest, abdomen, gynaecology and more.

“The feedback about the course from our Vietnamese was really positive as, along with bringing them up to speed with our techniques in the UK, we were able to reinforce their existing knowledge base.

“And we actually learned quite a bit from the team in Vietnam too, including how they see 4,000 outpatients a day at one hospital, which is incredible. We visited their ultrasound department where they were scanning a patient every three minutes – an incredibly efficient system!

“We are still in talks with the health service in Vietnam and they’ve expressed an interest in us returning to run the course elsewhere in the country, such as the capital city Hanoi, which is located in northern Vietnam.

“We met some incredible people, with who we clearly have a shared passion for radiology. It has been a rewarding and humbling experience that has left us with impressions that will last a lifetime.”