Our inventory work has been progressing nicely! We finished the basic tagging and cataloging of equipment at Zewditu in about two days, a task for which we had allotted two weeks. I think our efficiency gained us some respect from the hospital staff, which made up for the fact that we can’t actually fix the equipment. BTB may have been more cunning about our intern pairings than we realized, Melody and I are a great team because she’s tiny and fits into small spaces, and I’m tall and can reach high things!

The extra time has given us the chance to think about expanding the scope of our inventory work. We had a long talk with our mentor Albert Rorairus, dean of Tegbare-id, about cost-benefit analysis of equipment repair. Essentially, we want to develop a method to look at how much a device is used v. how much will a repair cost v. how much the repair will extend the device’s lifespan, and determine if the repair is cost effective. This is an especially relevant problem in developing world hospitals, as much of the donated equipment is old and replacement parts are hard to find. In addition, this could streamline the process of medical device disposal, currently consists of locking up defective devices in unused storage rooms.

We also want to incorporate automatic alerts that will tell the technicians when a device requires maintenance (like changing oil or replacing filters). These additions will require a lot of revision to our current inventory database, and should keep us occupied!

We got to skip work for a day to attend Tegbare-id’s annual exhibition! This is when they show government officials, the press, and other important people all that they accomplished in the past year. They also give out free shirts and hats (luring people in with free stuff- sounds like Rice!).

 

We even got a shout out when they talked about collaborations with other organizations! All the students demonstrated their design projects, and then afterwards there was food and dancing. Melody and I attempted the local dances, and we got a good reception, but I couldn’t tell if they thought we were good or just funny! Overall a really good time.