A resolution to increase medical-imaging capacity worldwide was adopted by the World Health Organization, and is expected to reduce the rising burden of cancer and other diseases – especially for low- and middle-income countries.
Adopted during the World Health Assembly (WHA78) in Geneva, the resolution considered recent conclusive evidence that increasing access to medical imaging will markedly improve human health and economic wellbeing, despite upfront costs.
“The time is now,” says Professor Andrew Scott, who was involved in drafting the resolution, co-led the Lancet Oncology Commission on Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine with Prof Hricak of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center USA, and directs Australia’s National Imaging Facility Node at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute and La Trobe University.
“Imaging has an important role to play in early detection and accurate staging of cancers, and improved access to imaging could reduce the death toll for patients who die prematurely from cancer each year,” he says.
“By improving equitable access to medical imaging for early diagnosis and management, healthcare providers around the world can also improve outcomes for patients with heart disease, who suffer from acute stroke, or require urgent treatment for acute trauma or pregnancy complications.”
Each year, about 17 million people die prematurely from cancer and other non-communicable diseases – 86% from low- and middle-income countries. However, access to imaging is currently very scarce in large parts of the world, particularly in many developing countries.
With its ability to provide a non-invasive window into our bodies, medical imaging is a crucial component of modern, high-quality healthcare. It improves and accelerates detection, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and understanding of diseases, both communicable and noncommunicable.
In addition, medical imaging is an essential and burgeoning tool for clinicians planning and delivering cancer therapies to patients – such as to implement radiotherapy, interventional radiology procedures, and radiotheranostics (precise, personalised therapy) for many cancers.
The Lancet Oncology Commission on Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine found vast disparities in access to medical imaging between countries of different income levels. For example, CT scanner numbers ranged from 0 to more than 30 per million people.
The Lancet Oncology Commission used sophisticated modelling to find that the global scale-up of imaging facilities, along with increased quality of treatment and care for the 11 most common cancers, would prevent 9.5 million deaths and yield a return of $12.43 per dollar invested.
The resolution highlights the need to improve people’s equitable access not only to imaging technologies, but its associated infrastructure, health workers and their training, and operating costs.
“This is why the resolution deserves the strong support demonstrated by all those working to advance global health, and the cancer care community especially,” says Prof Scott.
After Prof Scott presented the Constituency Statement for the resolution at the World Health Assembly, the Resolution was approved by all countries. “Now, we have the opportunity to engage globally in workforce training, and improving access and availability for all patients who need imaging for optimal care,” he says.
You can watch the ratification of the Resolution on Strengthening Medical Imaging Capacity here, by choosing the ‘WHA78 – Committee A, Tenth Committee A meeting’ on 24 May, at time 2:45:46.