Hi everyone!
Sorry for the delay in blogging! The last week has really flown by, with an incredible amount of tech surveys, data analysis, prototyping, and catching up with our professors! It’s amazing for me to think that in less than one week, I will be on a plane home to the United States! I feel like I’ve spent so much time in Blantyre, but at the same time there is so much I wish I had the time to get done. But for next year’s interns, I think we have identified several projects that you could definitely keep working on.
1. Connecting with PAM
Our work with PAM this summer has been great. Jacinta, Caleb, and I have made a lot of friends with the technicians and engineers that work with Queens, and we have also started to get some great feedback on our user manuals! One big project, however, we didn’t have a chance to get finished. Jacinta had the goal of creating a spare parts needed database, that would allow medical equipment suppliers to see what PAM needs to fix broken equipment. As Caleb mentioned in an earlier blog post, many of the breaks PAM sees are fixable, but there are no spare parts to be used to fix the devices! This means that PAM becomes a graveyard of broken equipment. This is especially frustrating to the people who work at PAM, as they are definitely skilled enough to fix the machines, but they do not have the tools to do so. When organizations donate used medical devices to QECH, PAM becomes a replace service, not a repair service like they are intended to be. Additionally, money can be saved by donating spare parts, as these usually cost less than medical devices.
2. Prototyping at the Poly
Working at the Poly has definitely given all three of us a chance to refine our design skills! Given two projects from Rodwell, we were successfully able to prototype a proof of concept breadboard for our most recent electronic IV drip device. (With a special thanks to Caleb for his amazing knowledge of electrical engineering and all his hard work this weekend). Though at times we were hindered by lack of spare parts, I really appreciated the opportunity to gain more experience designing medical devices, and it was neat to be able to receive on-site feedback about the feasibility of our devices. To whatever interns come to Blantyre next year, design projects are a great way to help out at the Poly while also improving your own technical skills!
3. DataDataDataData
With a large clinical trial such as bCPAP, it seems like data collection is never complete! In fact, just this week when we were visited by Dr. Oden, Dr. Kortum, and Dr. Leautaud, we had the chance to go back through all the charts at Queens to do an analysis of a patient’s temperature throughout their hospital stay in relation to mortality. Many of the babies that come into Queens are hypothermic, and figuring out if this is significantly related to mortality would be a great reason to start an incubator, baby warmer, or any heating device type of design project. BTB is always looking for new and innovative ways to analyze data, getting as much information as possible to improve future devices, so there will always be plenty of this work around.
Otherwise, Caleb, Jacinta and I have had a busy week wrapping up things here in Blantyre, buying souvenirs for our families, and saying goodbye to the friends we have made. We had a final meeting at the POLY with many of the electrical engineering faculty with whom we worked, and it was good to hear that everyone had a positive experience working with us! Additionally, tech surveys have been flying along, and Emily is officially best friends with many of the nurses here. Jacinta and I are trying to buy as many of our favorite South African – Cadbury candy bars as we can, and Caleb and Emily have learned how to make nsima (a Malawian staple). I’m sure I will be much more upset about leaving all the friends I have made when I am on a plane going home, but right now I don’t think saying goodbye has quite sunk in yet. I still feel like next week I will wake up in my bed at Cure, ready to eat some Mendazi (Malawian doughnuts) stuffed with cikonella (a nutella-like spread that has become a BTB intern staple, though it is not a traditional Malawian staple) before heading off to complete some data entry at QECH.
At the end of this week, the five of us are having a last-weekend hurrah, and going on another safari! Hopefully this time we will be able to see some lions and giraffes and such : ) So, if I don’t blog again until I get home, that’s the reason why! However, for any loyal readers who were worried I wouldn’t reach my 2 blog a week goal, don’t worry. I promise to make my quota of 18 posts by writing two very introspective blogs upon my return to America about what I have learned and who I have met in Malawi!
