“75% of the equipment I’ve repaired in the 38 countries I’ve visited can be repaired without spare parts.”
– Eben Amstrong, Senior Biomedical Engineer at MedShare.
The overwhelming demand for biomedical equipment in the developing world is matched only by an equally desperate need for training in the use and repair of equipment. As a result, items from x-ray machines to ventilators fail at critical times or sit on shelves unable to be used when the patient's need is greatest.
This unfortunate reality was highlighted during a recent training trip to Africa undertaken by MedShare’s Senior Biomedical Engineer, Eben Amstrong, through partnership with The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation. Following the shipment of seven forty-foot MedShare containers to Zimbabwe, and eight containers to Swaziland provided for by The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, Eben traveled to both countries to train technicians and hospital staff in maintenance and care of MedShare donated equipment as well as to address existing equipment issues.
Hosted by Celebration Health, Eben's first stop was Harare Central Hospital in Zimbabwe where he conducted a multiple day training clinic for 28 technicians from hospitals in and around Harare. Training covered theory, preventative maintenance, and item-by-item repair. Eben reviewed each item donated through MedShare as well as conducted troubleshooting of non-MedShare equipment the technicians listed from their own hospitals. One of the most significant accomplishments was the training provided for the mobile CT scanner donated by Catalina Imaging in partnership with The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation that MedShare had sent to Zimbabwe - only the second working CT scanner in the entire public health sector in a country of more than 13 million people! At the end of the training session Eben presented the technicians with donated maintenance tool sets capable of testing and fixing biomedical equipment.
Eben was also on hand when an emergency cropped up at one of the area hospitals' intensive care units. The infusion pump machine providing glucose to a patient suffering from septicemia was failing, but no one had the training to correct the issue. Eben was able to quickly diagnose the problem using one of the tool kits donated by MedShare and fixed the problem without any spare parts.
In Swaziland, Eben 
conducted a training clinic for 34 technicians. Biomedical training programs are not available in the country so the hope is that the training provided to these technicians will be leveraged to train others in-country in the future. Eben was also able to visit several health care facilities in each country to repair equipment in need of servicing and to train end users of the biomedical equipment. Finally, Eben was able to conduct needs assessments at several facilities to project what follow-up shipments might be needed to improve health care in these countries over the long-term.
So where is MedShare’s Senior Biomed Technician headed to next? As we speak, Eben has made his way to Haiti where he will check on the 25 shipments sent for the relief efforts.
