(Gradian traveled to Tanzania in March to install two new UAM’s and train providers from two local hospitals.)

Tanzania offered one big “Karibuni” for Gradian, welcoming us at every turn over the 10 days we were there. The goals for this trip were to install 2 new UAMs at Ifakara/St. Francis Regional Referral Hospital and Mkuranga District hospital, to learn about the health care delivery landscape in the country (mainland and Zanzibar) and to develop relationships that will help us improve access to safer surgery across Tanzania.

The trip started off on the bumpy road from Dar es Salaam to Ifakara, about 8 hours south. The trip would have been much more painful if we hadn’t chanced upon a safari of our own on the side of the road. As we drove we saw literally herds of giraffes, elephants and zebras just grazing along (see photos), which was a welcome break in the long drive.

At St. Francis we were welcomed by the medical director, Dr. Nyamtema, who was a terrific host and arranged for the entire operating department (theatre nurses, surgical and anesthesia staff as well as biomedical techs) to attend the presentation on their new UAM, which Dr. Mpoki delivered skillfully, alternating between Swahili and English.

We made it back to Dar just in time to make a similar introductory presentation to about 30 people at Muhimbili National Hospital. The audience included heads of department from the hospital and MUHAS, NGO representatives, Ministry of Health & Social Welfare representatives and providers from the island of Zanzibar. We were fortunate to receive candid feedback from such an experienced group about what they liked and didn’t like about the UAM and what hospitals they believed could most benefit from such a technology.

Finally we traveled to Zanzibar, where they have their own Ministry of Health. On the island we met with leaders from Mnazi Mmoja, the large hospital on Zanzibar as well as decision makers from the ministry. One of the many issues we learned there was the common issue of irregular oxygen supplies that we see frequently. However in this hospital’s case, in order to get oxygen to them on the island, they must fill the tanks on the mainland and bring them over in dhow boats. That is a whole different challenge from a bumpy road!

The last few days involved the installation of the UAM at Mkuranga, where Dr. Mpoki will train the staff in April, meetings with the Executive Director of Muhimbili and a number of NGOs that are working on improving health care at health facilities across the country

We were thrilled with the welcome reception we got in Tanzania and look forward to expanding in the country in the near future.

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