Tema Medical Journal launched.

The Tema Medical Journal, a publication of the Narh-Bita College in Tema has been launched at the Oak Royal Hotel in Tema. The journal joins the Ghana Medical Journal as the country’s only two medical journals. The TMJ which will be published twice a year, will disseminate news and information on subjects related to various medical specialties.

The journal will discuss subjects related to the clinical sciences and publish clinical notes and review articles on special medical events and medical investigations. It will also report on extremely rare clinical presentations that come to the notice of medical scientists and physicians.

The maiden issue of the Tema Medical Journal reports on the findings of a study into depression and anxiety among infertile women in the Greater Accra Region. It also carries two case studies conducted in Tema on the management of “fetal hydrocephalus”, a congenital abnormality in which an accumulation of fluid leads to the enlargement of the skull and the shrinking of the brain in infants.

The journal’s maiden issue also reports on a study conducted on the relative academic performance of science and non-science students studying nursing.

The challenges facing the funding of private tertiary health education in Ghana is discussed in the issue. An article titled “Building bones, building institutions and dodging bullets”, profiles the first ever Ghanaian orthopedic surgeon, the famous Professor Kweku Gyandoh Korsah, who co-founded the orthopaedic department of the University of Ghana Medical School in the 1960s.

Prof. Edwin Afari of the Noguchi Memorial Centre for Medical Research at the University of Ghana who was the main speaker at the launch, said Ghana’s second medical journal would help to document knowledge and educate the public about developments in medical science and medical delivery and urged medical practitioners and students alike to contribute well researched articles to the publication.

The Tema Metropolitan Director of Health Services Dr. Ernestina Quainoo who chaired the launch, observed that many publications tended to fold up after only a short while and warned that “If we {medical practitioners} don’t nourish the journal with articles in its infancy, it will become malnourished and die.”

Dr. Nii Bonney Andrews, an accomplished neurosurgeon and the editor-in-chief of the Tema Medical Journal said the TMJ would endevour to publish material of high professional quality from medical research and invited all members of the medical science community to contribute to the publication.

The journal’s format is reader friendly. The cover of the maiden issue features an energetic acrylic-on-canvas painting titled “Rush Hour”, by Kwadwo Ani. Abstracts from the journal will be made available online at www. narhbita.org/journal, according to the journal’s editorial board.