MedShare International

MedShare sends medical supplies and equipment to underserved areas

Atlanta Business Chronicle - October 24, 2005
Steve Fall
Contributing Writer

MedShare International, a Decatur-based nonprofit organization, has created a medical-supply recycling program that helps everyone involved.

MedShare collects from hospitals surplus medical supplies and equipment that would otherwise be discarded due to strict U.S. regulatory requirements. After they sort these products, they're shipped to hospitals and clinics in developing countries that desperately need them.

"These products are very valuable in an international setting, because the need is so great," said A.B. Short, the organization's co-founder and CEO. Short explained MedShare's twofold purpose. "One part is humanitarian," he said. "The other is environmental, because these surgical products would end up in our landfills. So we benefit locally from MedShare recycling it, and people benefit internationally because it improves the quality of their health care."

MedShare, which began operations in early 1999, recently relocated to a new 48,000-square-foot facility. It works regularly with a growing list of about 35 hospitals, including most in metro Atlanta.

The hospitals benefit from knowing they're helping save lives in other countries.

"MedShare is to be commended for its actions to accumulate, recycle and distribute medical supplies and equipment to developing areas of the world," said Robert Maynard, president and CEO of Piedmont Hospital.

WellStar Kennestone Hospital joined the program about eight months ago.

Sherron Kurtz, director of surgical services, explained what drew them to MedShare. "They take things that we were going to throw away that are appreciated and needed by Third World countries," she said.

"It's a great way for WellStar to help people elsewhere in the world," said Jeff Stephens, executive director of materials management for WellStar.

Word of the program has spread beyond Atlanta.

MedShare also receives small donations from some hospitals outside of Georgia, although the organization focuses its efforts within the state.

In some rural areas where surgeons are washing and reusing surgical gloves because of shortages, according to Short, the more participants, the better.

In addition to surgical items, MedShare also ships medical equipment. This donated equipment, always in working condition, becomes available when hospitals upgrade to the latest technology.

Not only is MedShare a giving organization, but an efficient one as well.

"We developed a Web-based inventory system," Short said. "When we're putting together a shipment, the receiving institution chooses box-by-box what goes into their container."

Organizations similar to MedShare are starting up elsewhere in the United States.

Short says he's happy to see that trend. "Our board wanted to develop a model that could be replicated, because we knew we were onto something. I think this movement is similar to where food-banking was in the late 1970s and early 1980s."