A Neurodiagnostic centre was yesterday inaugurated at Wisconsin International University (WIU) in Accra to provide hands-on training for the students and serve them at North Legon community.
The Centre is equipped with machines for testing the brain to diagnose and treat conditions like epilepsy; movement, cognitive and sleep disorders; dementias; strokes, and headaches.
Funded by Purple Point Neurodiagnostics (PPN), an American firm, the facility has been resourced to help students of the university to conduct nerve studies.
Speaking at the commissioning, the Chief Operating Officer of PPN, Mr Teguo Djoyum said the firm established the facility to advance the work of neurologists in the country.
He explained, the efficiency of neurologists depended on proper diagnostics as it would determine the type of treatment a patient requires, and hinted at plans to construct similar facilities all over the country.
He added that the role of PPN was not to take over the duties of neurologists but to increase their reach across the country with technology as there were a lot of patients to attend to at all times.
“They can’t see all patients at the same time but now with the technology, they can do the test here (WIU) and the test would be placed on their computers for their recommendations and it would reduce the time spent at each hospital attending to patients,” he explained.
The Director for Professional Studies at WIU, Dr Charles Acheampong, said the Neurodiagnostic sector was one that lacked personnel and equipment hence the collaboration with PPN to establish the state-of-the-art facility.
He said the centre would supplement the less than 10 neurodiagnostic testing laboratories in the country and would also reduce the wait time patients had to go through in order to access health care.
“Sometimes patients who have to do the tests must wait for two weeks or more in order to get access to a testing laboratory, all this will be reduced,” he said.
The Acting Chief Executive Officer of MHA, Dr Caroline Amissah in a speech read on her behalf by the Head of the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit at the Mental Health Authority (MHA), Mr Evans Danso said the mental health situation in the country was gradually improving.
She said more attention was being paid to the neurological diseases mostly accompanied by mental health disorders, such as post-stroke depression/anxiety and mental health in sleep disorders.
“The mental health situation in Ghana has observed gradual improvement prior to the modernisation of mental healthcare using traditional methods in the 1880s by traditional healers and herbalists.
“Proper diagnosis would give way to ensure targeted treatment, holistic management as well as providing adequate and committed care for such individuals,” she said.
BY JESSEL LARTEY THERSON-COFIE
