Improving global health: five engineering strategies

Students interview Dr. Osman Palma (center), director of the Alfonso Moncada Guillen Hospital Amigo de la Niñez y de la Madre, located in Ocotal, Nicaragua. Click on above image for higher resolution image. ANN ARBOR, Mich.—After researching more than 600 health-related technologies and traveling to Nicaragua to observe medical care there, University of Michigan graduate students have identified five keys to developing sustainable health technologies in resource-limited settings such as developing nations. In an unconventional new Design for Global Health course, the students spent last semester researching best practices in low-cost technologies for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of the top ten causes of death in low- and middle-income countries. Each week, the class focused on a different topic in global health, including respiratory disease, coronary heart disease, malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. They compiled their most promising findings in technology case studies that will soon be published by the U-M Center for Global Health and the World Health Organization (WHO). "Through their work, these students created new knowledge that is very valuable outside the classroom," said Kathleen Sienko, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering who developed and taught the course.