This last week was a mix of excitement and tiresome work. One of the Baylor docs, Leigh, took me on an outreach trip to Hukuntsi, a small village in the northern region of Botswana. To get there, BIPAI chartered an 8 person jet, which made me feel like an unexpected VIP! The hospital in Hukuntsi was very well run with a low patient volume; therefore I did not have a chance to try out the devices I brought along. Nonetheless, it was a great day trip to a part of Botswana I had never seen.

 

Given that most of my technologies are on hold, I decided to head over to the UPenn women’s clinic to help them out. Just as background information, the women’s clinic specializes in cervical cancer screening and is the only center in all of Botswana to perform a procedure known as Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure (LEEP), in which precancerous lesions are removed from the cervix. Being the only of its kind, the clinic has a very high patient volume and is currently flooded with medical records that need to be converted into their electronic database for analysis purposes. I began entering the data into the system, which revealed a number of glitches that further complicated the task. Nonetheless, someone had to get through this to identify these issues, and I was glad to take it off the staff’s shoulders. I also redesigned several of their screening forms using Power Point to better match the way the database is constructed. Although the data entry was tedious, I was repeatedly reminded of how much this would help the staff in the future. Once they have everything in electronic format, researchers can begin investigating questions about determinants of cervical lesions, recurrence of lesions, and the effectiveness of LEEP.

 

The Accudose syringe clamps, which I discussed in previous posts, have shown to be the most promising technology I brought along. Based upon the interest I gathered from the clinical staff for this device, BTB coordinators have asked me to find out how to get these clamps locally produced. I began my search for a company that does injection molding by speaking to the Baylor systems engineer, Nicholas, who referred me to a contact at a local medical supplies company, Orthosurge. Unfortunately, Orthosurge does not manufacture any plastics, it only imports them. Orthosurge then directed to a company in South Africa, which also proved to be unfruitful. Most medical supplies in both Botswana and South Africa are imported from abroad. The size of the private sector in Botswana remains a challenge for implementing sustainable technologies. One of the bioengineering Ph.D students from Rice, Defo, will be returning to Botswana in July. I will hopefully work with him to find a solution.