BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY AID INTERNATIONAL
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Mission Statement
We improve healthcare technology in resource-limited countries by improvisational hands-on training of biomedical engineers through locally-based academic programs that are self-sustaining and adaptive to new medical technologies. We facilitate continuing education of hospital technicians to instruct staff on new medical device care and use, and to maintain, repair and calibrate equipment. Volunteers and partnering academic institutions are the critical human resources in achieving our mission, and equipment donations are carefully screened to avoid turning developing countries into technology dumping grounds -- a pervasive problem.
About This Cause
Since 2010, BETA's founder has facilitated upgrades in lab equipment and hands-on practical training at Arusha Technical College in northern Tanzania with the goal of addressing 80% non-functioning medical equipment in Tanzanian hospitals -- leading to the formation of BETA Intl. Volunteers and university partnerships have led to a widely-respected 3-year Ordinary Diploma program in "Electrical and Biomedical Engineering" (EBE), which will log 80 total graduates in January 2017 -- with 120 current students. EBE Bachelors program was started in 2016 to produce Clinical Engineers and Medical Device Designers with keen insights into pragmatic and improvisational adaptation of medical technology tailored to local resources and culture, and has 58 students in first two years. One year after Haiti's tragic 2010 earthquake, BETA founder collaborated with Project Medishare (U.Miami) to service and repair medical equipment in Port-au-Prince's premier trauma hospital, Bernard Mevs, and to help International Aid train Haitian technicians there in 2012 -- the year BETA was founded. Partnering spread to Rotary Houston's sponsoring of Haiti's first Biomedical Technician training program in Pignon, which produced 40 graduates, for whom BETA provides continuing education clinics with Rotary Houston support. BETA sponsored three U.Portland Biomed Club student volunteer repair trips to Hospital Bernard Mevs from 2014 to 2016, resulting in dozens of newly-working and calibrated medical devices -- and trips to Partners in Health hospital, as well as technical colleges where we hope to start a BMET program like the one in Tanzania. BETA continues to expand collaborations with many nonprofits in Haiti which seek a permanent academic training venue for hospital technicians. We were one of 55 worldwide stakeholders invited by AAMI/GE Foundation to the 2015 Toronto summit on BMET Education in Low-Resource Countries, joining forces to overcome common obstacles and share curriculum development. Our small size makes collaboration imperative to achieve lofty goals, but university alliances have included Duke (Engineering World Health Summer Institute), Cornell, and Clemson in Tanzania, and U.Portland and U.Miami (Project Medishare) in Haiti -- as well as many of the best-known names in developing-world Biomedical Technology education. Volunteers are the backbone of BETA, as we have no paid staff. More than 95% of donations have gone toward program expenses in our 5 years of existence, and our volunteers donate most of their own travel expenses. Our success is based on individual volunteer effort, combined with strategic partnerships.