Dr Matt Andrews - Sharing Time With Pacific Nations
Report by: Matt Andrews
“At Radiology Across Borders, we are very fortunate to have many passionate volunteers who commit their pro bono time and expertise to help their colleagues in nations throughout the globe. In “Our World“, we want to profile some of these volunteers to thank them and to get an insight into what doing this work means to them. One dedicated volunteer who personifies everything about what Radiology Across Borders is about is Dr Matt Andrews. We are very grateful for his support and expertise.“ Dr Suresh de Silva - Founder
Dr Matt Andrews - on why I share my time and expertise with medical professionals in developing nations.
When I decided to set out on my journey into medicine, one of my reasons for doing so was to help people in my local community and in the third world. During my time as a junior doctor, my wife and I travelled for 3 months through South-East Asia, and we used this as an opportunity to see where our skills may be used in the future. We visited several local hospitals and met with doctors, and ran an outreach clinic in rural Cambodia. It struck me that there wasn’t a need for more overseas doctors per se, but rather, for the education of the local doctors, nurses and other medical staff who spoke the local language and understood the needs of the people much better than we did.
As I specialized in Radiology, it became even clearer that education was a major way I could contribute my skills. There would be little to be gained in heading to a third world country for a couple of weeks and reporting several hundred x-rays. I partnered with Radiology Across Borders towards the end of my radiology training, and have since given a webinar, and travelled to Cambodia in 2018 and 2019 to help give the annual lecture series.
I believe that education leads to better radiologists, and this, in turn, will improve the healthcare outcome of many more patients. I am fortunate to have received high-quality training throughout medical school and fellowship and am in a privileged position to now pass that knowledge on to other radiologists, registrars, sonographers and other local medical staff.
