{"id":21361,"date":"2013-05-02T14:37:07","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T18:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=21361"},"modified":"2014-04-28T16:21:35","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T20:21:35","slug":"engineering-students-to-deliver-x-ray-machine-incubator-to-african-clinic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2013\/05\/02\/engineering-students-to-deliver-x-ray-machine-incubator-to-african-clinic\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering students to deliver X-ray machine, incubator to African clinic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Assistant engineering professor Nasser Kashou with X-rays and the X-ray machines his students are taking to the African nation of Malawi.<\/p><\/div>\n

With X-ray equipment in tow, five Wright State University engineering students will soon be getting exposure to medical care and foreign culture in the African nation of Malawi as part of a global health service-learning course.<\/p>\n

Assistant engineering professor Nasser Kashou, Ph.D., is taking the undergraduate biomedical and mechanical engineering students to a small rural clinic in Malawi to deliver an X-ray machine and an incubator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan is to teach a handful of people there how to use the X-ray equipment\u2014the safety issues, the technology,\u201d Kashou said. \u201cEach student will take a pair of locals and do one-on-one training.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kashou displays the X-ray equipment that will benefit the medical clinic in Malawi.<\/p><\/div>\n

Malawi, in southern Africa bordering Tanzania, is one of the world’s least developed countries. With a largely rural population, its economy is largely based on agriculture, and the government depends heavily on outside aid. Malawi has a relatively low life expectancy and high infant mortality rate.<\/p>\n

The students depart May 9, land in the Malawi capital of Lilongwe and drive north for a day before arriving at their destination, a tiny rural village.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really going to be out in the middle of nowhere,\u201d said Kashou. \u201cThe residents are spread out, with homes a good distance away from each other. Electricity can be sporadic. They have well water there, but we have to treat it before we use it. There is not going to be bottled water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kashou is teaching the students how to use the X-ray equipment, relying on information from a course used to certify X-ray technicians in Ohio. The students will in turn train the clinic workers how to use the X-ray machine and protective lead radiation vests as well as how to develop film manually. A small area in or near the clinic will be sealed off to create a darkroom, and a stand will be welded together to support the equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing we\u2019re going to try to focus on is safety radiation,\u201d Kashou said. \u201cOnce it\u2019s all set up, the X-ray equipment will be used to take chest X-rays and check for broken bones.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group will also deliver an incubator that runs off the power grid but has a backup battery that can be recharged using solar power.<\/p>\n

Kashou intentionally selected undergrads for the trip because he wants them to see what the needs are in Malawi and then use their experience to design a senior class project in the global health program.<\/p>\n

The students are Patrick Morrissey of Yellow Springs, Rachel Bruce of Tipp City, Katherine Gamber of Canton, Luke Stork of New Lebanon and Caitlin Hinds.<\/p>\n

Some of the students are preparing for the trip by reading about African culture. Kashou is encouraging them to read, but says there is nothing better than the actual cultural experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re learning the technical stuff here, and they\u2019re going to learn it there. But that\u2019s not really what\u2019s going to keep them going long term,\u201d said Kashou said. \u201cOnce you\u2019re there and you see for yourself, you experience, then you know what reality is. There are some good things we can take from their culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trip involves six days of travel, with the group returning home May 25. In the end, clinic workers will have an X-ray machine and an incubator and be trained how to use them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis equipment will save lives; it\u2019s a huge humanitarian project,\u201d said Kashou. \u201cAnd humanitarianism is a good quality for these students to have, especially if they are biomedical engineers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With X-ray equipment in tow, five Wright State University engineering students will soon be getting exposure to medical care and foreign culture in the African nation of Malawi… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":21363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2025,725,715,746,2117,719],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-community-service","category-home-news-sidebar","category-news","category-science-mathematics","category-service-learning-and-civic-engagement","category-special-categories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21361"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30041,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21361\/revisions\/30041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}