On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, leaving 220,000 people dead and 1.5 million people displaced. As the world scrambled to provide disaster relief, Remedy at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) mobilized rapidly. Remedy at UCSF is a medical student organization whose mission is to recover unused medical supplies from UCSF Medical Center for responsible redistribution globally and to reduce local waste production. The post-earthquake relief effort for Haiti tested Remedy at UCSF’s capacity and organizational capabilities. Over two years later, this student-run organization continues to support health care in this country by donating supplies to organizations that work in Haiti and to medical student volunteers traveling to Haiti.
Remedy at UCSF uses an effective and efficient operational model: 1) Trained nursing staff place unused medical supplies in designated bins strategically placed throughout the hospital. These essential medical supplies would otherwise be discarded because of federal regulations or procedural excess that prohibit reuse; 2) Every week, UCSF medical, nursing, pharmacy and dentistry students collect, sort, and store the supplies; 3) Organization leaders distribute supplies to individuals and organizations serving under-resourced communities globally.
Increasingly, Remedy at UCSF is contacted by UCSF community members searching for medical supplies to carry with them abroad. The student organization serves as a bridging entity to move supplies quickly into the hands of medical professionals who travel all over the world to provide essential medical services. From 2010-2012, Remedy at UCSF directly supplied projects in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, India, Kenya, Peru, Tanzania, and Uganda. The student organization also partners with MedShare, a non-profit organization that specializes in delivering and distributing unused medical supplies internationally. Over the last 3 years, Remedy at UCSF has donated over 23,300 pounds of supplies to MedShare.
Ten days after the Haiti earthquake, Remedy at UCSF loaded a MedShare truck with 1,750 pounds of unused medical supplies. MedShare flew eleven shipments of requested supplies into Port-Au-Prince in the first fifteen days after the earthquake; Remedy at UCSF had collected a large percentage of these supplies. Because Remedy at UCSF had an established relationship with MedShare and since MedShare had established relationships in Haiti in addition to logistics expertise, the supplies were delivered to the hospitals and clinics that requested them fast and efficiently.
News of the student-led initiative spread rapidly, and Remedy at UCSF transformed into the local hub for nurses, doctors and medical students looking for supplies they could carry with them to Haiti. Shortly after the earthquake, a Haitian medical student at UCSF returned home with Remedy at UCSF supplies for her community. Eventually, the relief effort transitioned from the acute phase of trauma and surgical care to the more long-term disaster consequences of cholera and other diseases of poverty. Over the past two years, Remedy at UCSF has continued its commitment to Haiti by providing supplies to student volunteers.
In April 2010, a group of four medical students traveled to Haiti with a local physician to work with Haitian Earthquake Relief Now (HERNow). They carried suitcases filled with supplies from Remedy at UCSF to mobile health clinics in tent cities outside of Port-Au-Prince. For a month, they used the supplies they had brought to provide medical care for everything from leishmaniasis to pregnancy.
In winter 2010, cholera treatment supplies, wound dressings, needles, blood pressure cuffs, and antiseptic filled the backpacks of students from UCSF and the University of Colorado. The students flew to the Dominican Republic and partnered with a community nurse in Puerta Plata to assist with medical treatments and to provide needed supplies in a poor urban area. Then, they crossed the border into Haiti where they found most buildings in Port-Au-Prince still in rubble, and makeshift tents occupying the majority of open spaces. After hiking 10 miles with the supplies from Remedy at UCSF on their backs, the students reached their ultimate destination, the Cloud Forest Medical Clinic. Situated in a mountainous region in southern Haiti, the clinic provides healthcare to many remote villages. The students packed bags of medical supplies and hiked to isolated villages to treat cholera patients, conduct prevention education, and distribute oral rehydration solution and water purifying tablets.
While the work of students going abroad is valuable, their impact is limited ultimately by what they can carry. The commitment to deliver medical supplies internationally requires the sacrifice of personal belongings to accommodate the space needed for life-saving items. Witnessing the impact of the supplies they carried is a truly formative experience for medical students who are accustomed to having access to all of the supplies, diagnostic tests, and medications that the patients in their home country may require.
Students eagerly join Remedy at UCSF because it is fast, effective, and incredibly high-impact. They are motivated by the volume of supplies they move out of the hospital and into hands of relief workers and MedShare trucks. Upon returning from their trips, student travelers have reported stories of the resuscitation of a dehydrated child dying from cholera in Haiti, a diabetic patient in Guatemala elated to finally have access to a blood glucose monitor, and a doctor bowing her head in thanks for the supplies donated to her in India. Students often have the chance to use the recovered supplies themselves when providing direct patient care abroad.
Remedy at UCSF’s sustainable commitment to the long-term Haitian relief effort demonstrates the impact a student-run initiative can have. UCSF and all other large hospitals have the capability to responsibly recover thousands of pounds of unused medical supplies every year and divert waste from landfills. The Remedy at UCSF model could be implemented at other academic medical centers in the developed world and become a global effort. Student enthusiasm, administrative support, storage space, and socially responsible donations are the key ingredients for success in this endeavor. Medical schools should take the lead to recover a substantial portion of currently wasted medical supplies, and deliver them to communities in need.
Meghan Moya Woods served as the programme director from 2009-2010 and Lily Bloom Muldoon is the current programme director. Hemal K Kanzaria founded Remedy at UCSF, and continues to advise the organization. He is currently a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar® Clinical Instructor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles. Sharad Jain serves as the faculty advisor. Over the past 5 years, Remedy at UCSF has received funding from the American Medical Student Association and the UCSF Associated Students of the School of Medicine. The authors would like to thank the student volunteers, hospital staff at UCSF, and the collaborating organizations for their dedication and passion.
This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's September/October 2012 edition.
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Disaster Relief and Long-Term Health Care Support in Haiti – What a Simple Student Initiative Can Do
October 5, 2012
On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, leaving 220,000 people dead and 1.5 million people displaced. As the world scrambled to provide disaster relief, Remedy at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) mobilized rapidly. Remedy at UCSF is a medical student organization whose mission is to recover unused medical supplies from UCSF Medical Center for responsible redistribution globally and to reduce local waste production. The post-earthquake relief effort for Haiti tested Remedy at UCSF’s capacity and organizational capabilities. Over two years later, this student-run organization continues to support health care in this country by donating supplies to organizations that work in Haiti and to medical student volunteers traveling to Haiti.
Remedy at UCSF uses an effective and efficient operational model: 1) Trained nursing staff place unused medical supplies in designated bins strategically placed throughout the hospital. These essential medical supplies would otherwise be discarded because of federal regulations or procedural excess that prohibit reuse; 2) Every week, UCSF medical, nursing, pharmacy and dentistry students collect, sort, and store the supplies; 3) Organization leaders distribute supplies to individuals and organizations serving under-resourced communities globally.
Increasingly, Remedy at UCSF is contacted by UCSF community members searching for medical supplies to carry with them abroad. The student organization serves as a bridging entity to move supplies quickly into the hands of medical professionals who travel all over the world to provide essential medical services. From 2010-2012, Remedy at UCSF directly supplied projects in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, India, Kenya, Peru, Tanzania, and Uganda. The student organization also partners with MedShare, a non-profit organization that specializes in delivering and distributing unused medical supplies internationally. Over the last 3 years, Remedy at UCSF has donated over 23,300 pounds of supplies to MedShare.
Ten days after the Haiti earthquake, Remedy at UCSF loaded a MedShare truck with 1,750 pounds of unused medical supplies. MedShare flew eleven shipments of requested supplies into Port-Au-Prince in the first fifteen days after the earthquake; Remedy at UCSF had collected a large percentage of these supplies. Because Remedy at UCSF had an established relationship with MedShare and since MedShare had established relationships in Haiti in addition to logistics expertise, the supplies were delivered to the hospitals and clinics that requested them fast and efficiently.
News of the student-led initiative spread rapidly, and Remedy at UCSF transformed into the local hub for nurses, doctors and medical students looking for supplies they could carry with them to Haiti. Shortly after the earthquake, a Haitian medical student at UCSF returned home with Remedy at UCSF supplies for her community. Eventually, the relief effort transitioned from the acute phase of trauma and surgical care to the more long-term disaster consequences of cholera and other diseases of poverty. Over the past two years, Remedy at UCSF has continued its commitment to Haiti by providing supplies to student volunteers.
In April 2010, a group of four medical students traveled to Haiti with a local physician to work with Haitian Earthquake Relief Now (HERNow). They carried suitcases filled with supplies from Remedy at UCSF to mobile health clinics in tent cities outside of Port-Au-Prince. For a month, they used the supplies they had brought to provide medical care for everything from leishmaniasis to pregnancy.
In winter 2010, cholera treatment supplies, wound dressings, needles, blood pressure cuffs, and antiseptic filled the backpacks of students from UCSF and the University of Colorado. The students flew to the Dominican Republic and partnered with a community nurse in Puerta Plata to assist with medical treatments and to provide needed supplies in a poor urban area. Then, they crossed the border into Haiti where they found most buildings in Port-Au-Prince still in rubble, and makeshift tents occupying the majority of open spaces. After hiking 10 miles with the supplies from Remedy at UCSF on their backs, the students reached their ultimate destination, the Cloud Forest Medical Clinic. Situated in a mountainous region in southern Haiti, the clinic provides healthcare to many remote villages. The students packed bags of medical supplies and hiked to isolated villages to treat cholera patients, conduct prevention education, and distribute oral rehydration solution and water purifying tablets.
While the work of students going abroad is valuable, their impact is limited ultimately by what they can carry. The commitment to deliver medical supplies internationally requires the sacrifice of personal belongings to accommodate the space needed for life-saving items. Witnessing the impact of the supplies they carried is a truly formative experience for medical students who are accustomed to having access to all of the supplies, diagnostic tests, and medications that the patients in their home country may require.
Students eagerly join Remedy at UCSF because it is fast, effective, and incredibly high-impact. They are motivated by the volume of supplies they move out of the hospital and into hands of relief workers and MedShare trucks. Upon returning from their trips, student travelers have reported stories of the resuscitation of a dehydrated child dying from cholera in Haiti, a diabetic patient in Guatemala elated to finally have access to a blood glucose monitor, and a doctor bowing her head in thanks for the supplies donated to her in India. Students often have the chance to use the recovered supplies themselves when providing direct patient care abroad.
Remedy at UCSF’s sustainable commitment to the long-term Haitian relief effort demonstrates the impact a student-run initiative can have. UCSF and all other large hospitals have the capability to responsibly recover thousands of pounds of unused medical supplies every year and divert waste from landfills. The Remedy at UCSF model could be implemented at other academic medical centers in the developed world and become a global effort. Student enthusiasm, administrative support, storage space, and socially responsible donations are the key ingredients for success in this endeavor. Medical schools should take the lead to recover a substantial portion of currently wasted medical supplies, and deliver them to communities in need.
Meghan Moya Woods served as the programme director from 2009-2010 and Lily Bloom Muldoon is the current programme director. Hemal K Kanzaria founded Remedy at UCSF, and continues to advise the organization. He is currently a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar® Clinical Instructor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles. Sharad Jain serves as the faculty advisor. Over the past 5 years, Remedy at UCSF has received funding from the American Medical Student Association and the UCSF Associated Students of the School of Medicine. The authors would like to thank the student volunteers, hospital staff at UCSF, and the collaborating organizations for their dedication and passion.
This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's September/October 2012 edition.
