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Vidar Digitizers Support World Health Organization Childhood Pneumonia - Case Study
In many developing countries throughout the world, infant and child mortality rates are disturbingly high, and acute respiratory infections— in particular pneumonia—are a leading cause of death. As a result, preventing pneumonia is a priority, and the World Health Organization (WHO) and other healthcare institutions are studying a number of vaccines designed to protect against the disease.
As part of its commitment to give back to the greater community, V1DAR Systems Corporation has provided its SIERRA™ plus Film Digitizer at a reduced cost to a number of study sites around the world in order to help them obtain the high-quality digital images they require.
The SIERRA/>/«s Digitizer is ideally suited for use in the studies due to its unique combination of exceptional image quality, compact size, reliable performance, and affordability.
WHO Childhood Pneumonia Studies
The childhood pneumonia studies are being conducted to evaluate vaccines for bacteria that cause pneumonia, such as the Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) bacterium. A first critical step in the study process, however, was to standardize the way childhood pneumonia is diagnosed.
According to WHO, it is difficult to obtain a standard diagnosis for pneumonia because there is considerable variation in the interpretation of chest radiographs by clinicians and radiologists. In addition, the level of training and the understanding of the terminology used for describing radiological changes associated with pneumonia may vary between study investigators in different countries.
Because it was essential that the investigators agree on the terminology and techniques used to evaluate radiographs across study sites, WHO embarked on a program to standardize the interpretation of chest radiographs for the diagnosis of pneumonia in children.