This Github repository serves as the access point to the Scan With Me (SWiM) training materials, and optimized scan protocols.
For more information about SWiM, the program's objectives, upcoming program including schedule and how to apply to attend, visit SWiM's event website. All training events are accessible to registered participarnts through SWiM's event website.
SWiM (Scan With Me) is a hybrid training initiative of the Consortium for Advancement of MRI Education and Research in Africa (CAMERA). The SWiM program is designed to advance the skill sets of MR imaging technologists practicing in imaging centers in Low-and-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) in Africa, Latin America and South East Asia. SWiM implements RAD-AID’s Teach-Try-Use strategy, applied in CAMERA’s SPARK AI training program, to rapidly provide MR image acquisition competences in resource-limited settings. In keeping with CAMERA’s training model, SWiM uses a combination of case-based and hands-on learning approaches to train a team of technologists who will work together as a network to grow their skills and collectively train others.
Given the relatively higher burden of cardiovascular disease in LMICs and the limited cardiac diagnostic imaging capacity in the region, coupled with the lack of postgraduate training in cardiac MRI (CMR), the first SWiM program focused on CMR. This first program was in collaboration with the Courtis CMR Research Group at the Division of Cardiology, McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), Siemens Healthineers, Circle Cardiovascular imaging Inc., Accuread Radiology Nigeria LTD, and EuraCare Multi-Specialist Hospital, Nigeria and supported by the McGill University Doctoral Internship Program and Global Mobility Awards. Forty-three MR technologists from 29 imaging centers in Africa, South East Asia, and Latin America participated in the first SWiM program and learned how to acquire high quality and best value CMR including emerging advanced contrast-free techniques such as the O2-Sensitive CMR technique (BMORE) developed by Prof Matthias Friedrich at MUHC.
The pilot SWiM program ran from August 22nd to October 7th 2023 with the goal of producing a team of technologists that will work together to implement a standard CMR protocol optimized for cardiac imaging at their centers (i.e., in LMICs). The program also introduced practical aspects of CMR imaging and guided the participants to produce a CMR case series report for dissemination of unique cases. By applying their knowledge toward imaging unique CMR cases, SWiM produced a cohort of well trained technologists competent enough to provide high quality CMR for clinical and research applications in LMICs.
