Message-ID: <4fipl3$2ag@dobie.loop.com> Date: Sat, 10 Feb 1996 18:54:27 GMT From: crw <mailto:crw@LOOP.COM> Subject: Med Equip for Rural Clinics To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
RE: Manufacturing/providing "older type" medical equipment/paraphanalia,
often more suitable for rural clinics...
Jay Stryker (mailto:jay@ftp.com), a Peace Corps Volunteer (Malawi), writes:
>I am looking at items such as simple sterilizers, microscopes,
>centrifuges, stethoscopes/amplified stethoscopes, vision and hearing
>screening testers, etc. (...) My hope is to build "reproductions" of the
>earlier equipt which the manufacturers have "orphaned", or to get their
>cooperation in becoming a supplier of spare parts"
One of the problems of modern, computerized equipment is its unsuitability
for rural clinics.
It is often cost-prohibitive, requires specialized training to operate and
-- being ultra sensitive -- may come to lack reliability in short order
under conditions of environmental extremems.
>My current activity is establishing a *small* manufacturing plant for
>older style (1900s - 1960s) medical equipment suitable for rural clinics.
>As you know, many of the early designs (pre-plastic, pre-computer)
>were rugged and reliable, but are also not readily available. If you have
>contacts with suggestions for individual items which are needed but
>not available, or for which parts are needed, please contact me on this
>topic. I am looking at items such as simple sterilizers, microscopes,
>centrifuges, stethoscopes/amplified stethoscopes, vision and hearing
>screening testers, etc. What have I missed/overlooked that needs to be
used
>in rural clinics? My hope is to build "reproductions" of the earlier
>equipt which the manufacturers have "orphaned", or to get their cooperation
>in becoming a supplier of spare parts.
Jay Stryker
mailto:jay@ftp.com
------------------------------------
Please contact Jay if you have any ideas or suggestions or need more info.
Cecil
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Cecil R. Washington, Jr.
University of California
Former Dir., Africa Program
Operation Crossroads Africa, Inc.