Our Work
Health Systems Strengthening
Mapping the Healthcare Landscape
Education & Collaboration
Medical Equipment Standardization & Modernization
Supply Chain Support
Mapping the Healthcare Landscape
To strategically invest in a healthcare system, you must understand the healthcare landscape that already exists. Gathering demographic and service data on healthcare facilities is vital to making the best and most impactful investments. The Relink Global Health team always seeks to understand all actors in each region before deciding when and how to engage. In addition, we collect capacity data from each facility which helps our team understand the true capability of each facility to offer consistent high-quality healthcare. This also helps identify areas of greatest need for support.
We have developed an online tool that collects and displays and analyzes this data. We have deployed this tool in Haiti, Malawi, and Nigeria to date and this software can capture information for any country in the world.
The data we capture has allowed us to print directories to help connect healthcare providers and facilities and it drives our decision making process for project and partner investment.
The site is free to access and very easy use. Contact our team info@relinkglobalhealth.org to learn more about this wonderful tool and how it could be applied to your global health work.
Education & Collaboration
Another key to strategic healthcare investing is getting to know the healthcare leaders in each marketplace. Strong, capable leaders drive vision, care about their communities, and implement well. Networking allows our team to meet leaders, understand their needs, and how they work. We will always work with or start collaborative organizations that allow healthcare leaders and providers to collaborate, communicate, and fellowship.
We all support clinical training of physicians throughout Haiti by hosting weekly clinical webinars in partnership with the Haiti Medical Education Project. These virtual webinars are attended by physicians and residents throughout Haiti to foster their professional development and learning.
In Haiti, Relink Global Health leads The Haiti Health Network that has grown to a community of over 900 individuals representing over 300 healthcare organizations. Bi-monthly meetings, strong advocacy efforts, weekly webinars, and other activities continue to knit together the healthcare community in Haiti. Through this network any health systems strengthening program can be implemented better, faster, and cheaper due to these strong relationships between leaders. In other areas of the world we work with large Christian health associations and other collaborative groups to accomplish the same goals.
In addition to our meeting and webinars, we recently launched a e-learning platform to provide in depth learning on topics related to medical equipment operation and repair that tracks student progress and includes a community of practice that allows learners to ask questions and collaborate with each other.
Medical Equipment Standardization & Modernization
If you’ve ever visited a healthcare facility in a developing nation you know that access to appropriate, working medical equipment is a huge need. In resource scarce environments, donations can become a primary means of procuring medical equipment. While this process is understandable and necessary, it does lead to inappropriate equipment and no thought to standardization and what it will take to maintain all of the various donations.
WHO estimates that about 75% of medical equipment donations never get used effectively in patient care. At Relink Global Health we are passionate about changing this. Due to our partnership with many medical equipment providers including reLink Medical, and large hospital systems like Ohio Health, we have access to large volumes of used medical equipment. We have designed a comprehensive program that is modernizing and standardizing medical equipment throughout the developing world. Our program has many components and covers the entire process from donation and procurement to training and repair. We won’t ship any equipment until we are sure that all facets of the program can be met. Through our partnership with relinkonline.com, we source high-quality new, certified, and refurbished medical equipment tailored to the realities of low-resource care settings and the specific needs of recipient countries.
Some of our current equipment standardization projects include:
- Nationwide C-Arm Standardization Project
- Modernization of 12 hospitals in Northern Haiti thanks to a USAID ASHA Grant
- National Oxygen Generation Plant project thanks to a partnership with FHI 360 and USAID
- Equipment provision for African surgeons starting new surgical programs in underserved regions
Supply Chain Support
Working with nationwide networks and associations helps us identify options for creating supply chain efficiencies. Our work with The Haiti Health Network has allowed our team to Distribute:
- Midwife Kits to 33 facilities thanks to our partners at Direct Relief
- 10,354 bottles of Prenatal vitamins, Vitamin A, and deworming medications to 116 facilities thanks to donations from Vitamin Angels
- Therapeutic Food in Northern Haiti in partnership with UNICEF and The Ministry of health
- Basic diagnostic tools to over 1,000 nurses and physicians throughout rural Haiti through The Equipping the Caregivers Program.
