An open-source bmet library: results on access and value

A barrier to keeping medical equipment in service in low resource settings is access to knowledge on how to maintain and repair medical equipment. In order to address this barrier, Engineering World Heath and Robert Malkin´s Developing World Healthcare Technologies Lab (DHT) at Duke University have created a digital library of open source materials. The library contains information on anatomy and physiology, basic technician skills, electronics, Healthcare Technology Management, and mathematics. The library uses Google translate to provide the material in multiple languages. To understand if the library is useful to technicians in a variety of contexts the DHTLab undertook a pilot study with technicians and engineers from Uganda, Cambodia, Kenya, France, and Honduras. The pilot aims to gather data on two main areas: the usability and utility of the library.