International Aid and GE Healthcare announce a partnership dedicated to bringing medical equipment to communities in developing countries.
Under the terms of the partnership, GE Healthcare will donate previously used anesthesia machines and ventilators to International Aid. GE Healthcare and International Aid plan to expand their partnership to cover a variety of GE Healthcare’s medical equipment, including maternal and infant care equipment, patient monitors and ultrasound systems.
GE Healthcare will also provide training to the International Aid’s engineering staff to enable International Aid to service the equipment. International Aid will refurbish and distribute the products overseas. International Aid will also provide education and product support to help local hospitals successfully deploy the donated equipment.
The new initiative, which combines the complementary resources and expertise of two leaders in their respective fields, is expected to involve the global distribution of more than 200 devices annually.
The partnership will extend an important component of International Aid’s mission, says GE Healthcare, leveraging the involvement of corporate and ministry partners to bring medical products and services to those in need. International Aid is currently a leading non-profit refurbisher and distributor of donated medical equipment. The agency’s extensive equipment-related operations are currently under review by the United Nations and other organizations evaluating best practices for overseas healthcare delivery.
During its 2006 fiscal year, International Aid shipped nearly 1,400 donated therapeutic and diagnostic devices to needy communities worldwide. Its related equipment-training program has trained nearly 500 technicians from 18 countries to maintain and repair an array of medical devices; as part of its work, International Aid maintains what it believes to be the world’s most extensive database of product operation manuals for donated medical equipment.
“GE Healthcare is continually searching for new ways to extend the reach of our technologies and services,” says Omar Ishrak, president and CEO of GE Healthcare’s Clinical Systems business unit. “This innovative partnership gives us the opportunity to bring our global medical technologies to International Aid’s global relief solutions. Together, we increase the opportunity to improve access to healthcare for the world’s patients.”
“Through our close relationships with a growing number of corporate donors, International Aid is playing an increasingly significant role in elevating the quality of healthcare in some of the neediest, and often most remote, places on earth,” says Myles D. Fish, International Aid’s president and CEO. “Our new partnership with GE Healthcare will enable us to take our work to a whole new level, introducing best-in-class medical technologies to communities that have had, until now, very little or no clinical capabilities.”
International Aid will coordinate the transport of GE Healthcare’s donated equipment from the company’s Wisconsin-based facilities to International Aid’s headquarters facility in Spring Lake, Mich. There, a dedicated International Aid team will refurbish the equipment for distribution overseas and manage all related, logistical arrangements.