Africa-Press – Tanzania. MUHIMBILI National Hospital (MNH) on Friday launched a temporal bone dissection laboratory along with an otology training hub, aimed at scaling up the skills to other peripheral hospitals and across the continent. Specifically, the laboratory is dedicated to the microscopic analysis of the ears of individuals who have suffered from hearing problems.
The temporal bones are two major bones in the skull. They help form the sides and base of the skull, where they protect the temporal lobe of the brain and surround the ear canal, whereby, otology is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the ear and its diseases.
The entire initiative costs 600bn/- for infrastructure, training, and capacity development for a period of three years, effective this year. Dr Aslam Nkya, MNH Head of the Department of Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT), said those specialisations are not currently taught in Tanzania, and otology is one of the areas that require special attention.
“This is the only public hospital in the region that performs ear surgeries.” With the rising number of patients with hearing impairment, both children and adults, this lab will be the centre of otology training.
“It will also serve as a platform for scaling up these services not only in the Tanzania referral hospital but also in the East African region,” said Dr Nkya.
With the state-of-the-art six stations and the support of equipment, training materials, and a visiting otologist and cochlear implant surgeon, they expect to reduce referrals abroad while increasing the number of specialists.
According to him, currently there are 14 specialists at MNH with three areas of specialisation that is otology, rhinology, head and neck with two units – audiology, speech and language pathology.
MNH Director of Surgical Services, Dr Rachel Mhavile, said the centre will serve as a base of state-of-the-art training surgical skill lab in Tanzania and sub-Saharan Africa funded by MED-EL and Austrian Development Agency (ADA) for three years (2023-2026) with local consultant being HearWell Audiology Clinic.
Dr Mhavile stated that between 2002 and 2016, the government referred approximately 50 patients abroad for cochlear implant surgeries, at a cost of approximately 120m/- per patient.
“Since 2017, MNH has been performing such surgeries; to date, we have performed 58 surgeries; the surgery in Tanzania costs about 45m/-; since we began this we have saved 4bn/- of taxpayers’ money,” Dr Mhavile said.
She also stated that the hospital has developed a plan to train more experts in the field of otology and the department of ENT, where four specialist doctors will be trained, thereby reducing the burden of patients waiting for the service.
Project Manager for business development in Africa Regional Manager for MED-EL, Ms Stephanie Unterrieder said the temporal bone lab will strengthen the hearing healthcare sector in Tanzania.
“It will also promote otology in sub-Saharan Africa and accessibility of training offers to local professional,” she said.
Ms Unterrieder further said as a hearing implant company, they are passionate about bringing the sounds of life, laughter, loved ones, and music to people with hearing loss. “It’s what we work for, and it’s what we believe in,” she noted.
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