Biomedical Engineering Training

Bowen University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso
Baptist Medical Centre, Saki
Continuing
Project Managers: Dr. Adewumi Durodola and Elaine Neil Orr

The transition of the Baptist Medical Centre Ogbomoso into Bowen University Teaching Hospital (BUTH) created an urgent need for staff training and enhanced equipment maintenance.  Beginning in 2007, NFW has partnered with Bowen University Teaching Hospital to improve its biomedical equipment, to provide advanced training for biomed technicians, and to create a high level of equipment care.

The goals of the program were to:

• Create an environment in which equipment purchases would be selected and maintained by criteria to be sustainable in the heat and humidity of tropical Africa.
• Create a knowledge base that would establish best practices in equipment care for the hospital staff.
• Create a culture throughout the institution that places a premium on equipment maintenance.

Instrumental to the team was engineer Rob Dickinson from South Africa, regarded by Engineering World Health as their top teaching technician in the world. Mr. Dickinson was particularly experienced in Africa.  NFW sponsored him to visit BUTH on five occasions over ten years, each time for a two-week stint of teaching and training BUTH’s biomedical equipment technicians.

The training included routine maintenance, trouble-shooting techniques, how to make onsite repairs when replacement parts are not readily available, criteria for inventory, creating databases of equipment, scheduling routine maintenance, and educating hospital staff in other departments on the importance of well-serviced equipment.

Mr. Dickinson’s visits led to other steps.  Selected members of the hospital staff received advanced biomedical training at Valley View University in Ghana.  Pediatrician Dr. Timothy Awotunde and Maintenance Director Joseph Edowhorhu participated in two conferences on healthcare technology management, and biomedical technician Segun Ogunlana completed a two-year degree program at Valley View.

To our great dismay, Mr. Dickinson died in 2018 of cancer.  All NFW members and the technicians he trained are grateful for his service.  He leaves behind many enlightened, resourceful and dedicated technicians as his legacy.

“The biomedical training I received was tremendous. It widened my knowledge and improved my ability to work on medical devices, and to save lives. I am grateful to NFW.”

 —John Edor, Biomed Technician

Since then, NFW has continued to provide Biomed technicians in Saki and Ogbomoso with kits that contain supplies and tools to maintain specialized equipment at those hospitals.

“This project makes an especially valuable contribution to our role as a teaching hospital.”

—Dr. Wole Adebo, BUTH Provost