Over the last few weeks we have made a lot of progress on the database software and are getting much closer to a working product.  After seeing another potential design and talking with our liaison at the hospital, we decided that it is going to be important to implement some kind of password system to keep users from making unintentional modifications and messing up the precious inventory file.  We’re also including functionality to generate reports, find spare parts, and generate an automatic maintenance queue based on the guidelines from the WHO.

More than anything else, our work here this summer has taught us that if you want something to be used, it has to actually be useful.  There are already too many bureaucratic hoops to jump through in the hospital system, so naively adding another one (maintenance of a tedious digital inventory) is counter-productive.  We hope that although there will be a slight additional burden needed to keep the inventory going, that it will more than make up for it with the time saved auto-generating reports and keeping devices maintained before they break.  We also hope that the inventory will provide a better bargaining tool to the head of the Biotechnology department.  Unfortunately he doesn’t have the authority to directly make purchasing decisions, having to justify everything to the hospital directors above him.  We hope that the inventory will give him information, hard numbers, and a little bit of credibility to better fight for the tools he needs.  Small investments in engineering capacity could go a long way in keeping the hospital functional, safe, and cost effective in the long run.