Home Programs Duke University

Duke University

Duke Global Health Institute

The Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI) brings together faculty, staff and students at Duke University to address health disparities. DGHI facilitates interdisciplinary research, education, policy and service in global health by working closely with all nine schools at Duke (undergraduate, graduate and professional). The goals are to:

The Duke Global Health Institute hosted a Conference on Bioengineering Applications to Address Global Health in November, 2008. Videos of individual presentations from the conference are available for download from iTunes U Bioengineering Applications to Address Global Health Conference.

Engineering World Health (EWH)

DGHI facilitates and coordinates global health efforts at Duke. To accomplish this, DGHI works with faculty and administrators from other centers and institutes at Duke, and creates formal partnerships with existing programs at Duke to build and strengthen global health activities and collaborate on new ideas and projects. One of the current institutional partners is Engineering World Health (Duke Chapter). Engineering World Health is a program at Duke University that aims to improve hospital conditions with a unique multi-step process.

Progress begins with an assessment conducted by our specially trained engineers. While working alongside hospital administrators, the engineer evaluates how the needs of the hospital can best be met.

Next, Engineering World Health assembles a container of refurbished medical equipment and donated supplies to meet the hospital's needs. However, shipping the container to the hospital is far from the end of EWH's involvement.

Once the parts have arrived, EWH volunteer engineers return to the hospital to install the equipment and train the hospital's staff in its use and maintenance. They will also repair broken equipment and train staff in the skills needed for future improvements.

However, EWH has found that a visit from engineers when the equipment first arrives is not enough. Items get broken in shipment, staff forget how to use the equipment, and occasionally a hospital requires an unanticipated specialty part to use the equipment. That's why EWH, unlike any other organization, returns a third time to the hospital. During the third visit, any additional parts not shipped with the original delivery are installed and the training is reinforced, preserving the hospital's capabilities for years to come.