Engineering World Health’s Summer & January Institutes are engineering service abroad programs in the hospitals and clinics of low-resource countries that lack needed technicians. The Institutes recruit top-notch engineering undergraduates, graduate students, and young professionals. At the outset, participants learn the local language and complete a technical training course designed to give them the hands-on skills they need to troubleshoot and repair vital hospital equipment. Teams of two or three participants are then placed in hospitals – ones that often lack any biomedical engineering staff – where they repair equipment, conduct preventative maintenance, take inventories, and train staff on how the equipment is to be operated successfully.
Participants work closely with hospital staff. They learn to listen to local perspectives as they conduct interviews on each hospital’s needs, and they learn new ways of approaching challenges as they seek creative solutions in low-resource settings. Their interactions become a global exchange of information. Participants teach hospital staff how to use new devices, translate manuals, and instruct technicians in device maintenance. At the same time, students learn the significance of medical device design choices when “just buying a new one” isn’t an option.
Since 2004, almost 700 Institute participants have repaired more than 6,500 pieces of equipment, returning an estimated $13 million worth of medical technology back to service.
As EWH reaches new countries, each of our programs offers a unique opportunity for students. Some countries, the "Campus to Country" programs, are only open to students of particular Universities, or EWH Alumni who have already completed a previous SI.
Deadline: Feb. 1, 2024
Guatemala and Uganda