Understanding the surgical context

The large surgical need of patients in low- and middle-income countries is described in scientific literature, additionally the main barriers for patients in seeking this type of care are known too. Barriers to use of equipment by medical providers and data on availability of equipment is very limited. Just a few researchers have researched the current availability and use of medical equipment in low- resource areas. They describe for example that only 40% of the equipment available within hospitals is working and a large part of this equipment will just require a single spare part to function again. Equipment is often donated and pre-owned. To increase access to safe surgery worldwide, knowledge about surgical equipment is required, for example, availability of specific surgical devices is unknown. Additionally, what features are required to enhance sustainable use have not been researched and required before our group and others can design context appropriate surgical tools.

To increase the knowledge of surgical equipment in low- and middle-income countries we conduct different types of field work. We use surveys to identify availability of surgical equipment in different countries. We use interviews to detail the route surgical equipment takes within the country before it reaches the hospital, and within the hospitals during daily usage. By observing procedures done within local hospitals we learn how equipment is used on a daily basis which is valuable knowledge to increase the quality of the designs of the equipment we develop within our lab.

Publications

Oosting, R. M., Wauben, L. S. G. L., Groen, R. S., & Dankelman, J. (2018). Equipment for essential surgical care in 9 countries across Africa: availability, barriers and need for novel design. Health and Technology, 1-7.

Oosting, R. M., Wauben, L.S.G.L, Mwaura, S.W., Madete, J.K., Groen, R.S., & Dankelman, J. (2019). Barriers to availability of surgical equipment in Kenya: a surgical equipment journey approach. Global Clinical Engineering Journal, 35-42.

Oosting, R. M., Wauben, L.S.G.L, Mwaura, S.W., Madete, J.K., Groen, R.S., & Dankelman, J. Roadmap for Design of Surgical Equipment for Safe Surgery Worldwide. In 2018 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC),1-8.

Project partners