Dr. Katherine Taylor, director of global health training and associate director of the Eck Institute for Global Health, co-authored the most recent National Academy of Medicine paper discussing how issues with local infrastructure in low-income countries can lead to medical donations becoming a detriment rather than helping to improve care.
Many hospitals don’t have the necessary funding or training to properly use and maintain these machines, so they often break and are simply abandoned. This paper addresses some of the problems hindering the use of donated medical devices, and identifies potential solutions to ensure these devices can be accessed by those who need them most.