It’s the season for giving, and some of the greatest gifts we can give are our time and talents. Recently AZBio connected with Engineering World Health and learned about an opportunity where bioscience professionals and healthcare engineers can make a difference by sharing time and talent healthcare organizations in developing countries. EWH has shared a special guest post that we are sharing with you. It just might be your opportunity to make a difference for communities around the world.
EWH Provides Travel and Service Opportunities for Biomedical Professionals
Engineering World Health is a non-profit organization with the mission of improving access to quality healthcare technology for the world’s poorest. We achieve this mission through various programs, including our BMET Training Program abroad. In this program, EWH hosts training programs in developing countries for local BMETs working in public and charity-based hospitals. By training BMETs in their home country or region and working with local partners, we achieve sustainable training programs that can be perpetuated by local institutions for years after the direct involvement of EWH in the country. This strategy allows the countries we work in to achieve a locally supported, long-lasting solution for the challenges of medical equipment maintenance and repair and provides the critical human capacity to repair and maintain the devices that the patients in these countries depend on.
EWH relies on guest instructors to make these programs a reality. The EWH BMET team works hard to manage these programs and to provide curriculum through partnership with Duke University. Guest instructors give their valuable time, knowledge, and experience to provide instruction on specialized topics to the local BMETs and build capacity for local educational institutions. These instructors provide instruction through lessons and hands-on equipment repair, and are asked to prepare and deliver a certain amount of lessons per week in conjunction with the EWH BMET team.
Guest instructors are typically invited to accompany EWH for two to four week trips. EWH provides
all airfare, lodging, food, and translation services for our guest instructors. We are currently training in Rwanda and Honduras, with programs set to begin soon in Cambodia and Ghana. All of these sites provide a great opportunity for biomedical professionals to serve their colleagues in developing countries and to experience parts of the world with interesting people, culture, and travel destinations.
If you might be interested in joining EWH on one of these trips, you can find more information on the EHW website, register your interest through a brief online survey, or contact Engineering World Health justin.cooper@ewh.org 919.682.7788).