Intern Spotlight!

MedPLUS Connect would like to thank our four interns Kate, Brooke, Catherine, and Claire for all of their hard work! We will be featuring each of them in a blog post this month so you can get to know them!

Kate

Kate is a senior at Georgia State University majoring in Political Science with an International Affairs concentration. She is a 2010 Who’s Who Among American Colleges and Universities award recipient, as well as an active member in the Honors program and Tau Sigma National Honor Society. Kate has maintained the HOPE scholarship all four years of college, and was recently selected to speak at Undergraduate Research Day regarding a research design project that aimed to simulate a single payer healthcare system within the US. Kate is a new member of the MedPLUS Connect team, and is currently working to collect medical supply donations for future shipments. She is also hoping to succeed in finding a portable X-Ray machine to send to Ghana.

day 2...the calm before the storm

Last night, Brooke and I had just finished talking about how smoothly the trip was going...when the lights flickered, fan sputtered, and the power went out. So...I will very cautiously (knock on wood) say that everything went incredibly well today and I think we have a great trip ahead of us!

We spent the morning at the Ministry of Health, and managed, after an hour or so wait, to meet with the Chief Director. We gave him the official transport documents for the two incoming shipments of supplies (using our ever-expanding shipping lingo of "bill of lading" and "duty exemptions") and the summary sheets of the supplies that we sent...pretty cool to add up the 40 hospital beds and >80,000 gloves!

After meeting with a computer technician who works with a Ghanaian NGO (evco.org) to finalize plans for computer lab we are setting up, we plan to head to the north and explore some unknown places to connect with new hospitals. On our agenda is a city called Walewale (yes, I laughed when I first heard it too) where the formal medical director of Lawra is now working.  Then, on to a hospital in the Upper-East region and another in the Upper-West region....hometowns of the Minister of Health and the Chief Director. Based on the Chief Director's chuckle when we told him we had never been to the Upper-East, we are in for some travel adventures!

On a quick exciting note, we got an email today that the Clinton Global Initiative University awarded MedPLUS a $5,000 grant.  Thanks Bill Clinton! :)

Emily And I At The Clinton Global Initiative University Conference In April, 2010

Happy Ghanaian Independence day (tomorrow)!

Emma, Emily, and Brooke

Hello from Ghana!

Hi everyone!

Hello from Ghana...we are so excited to be here!

After a long overnight flight and (surprisingly) no mishaps with our checked bags, we arrived in Accra, Ghana and took a taxi to our hotel. After arguing with the receptionist about the "outrageous" price increase (...about $7) we discovered that the hotel now has wireless internet...the best $7 ever spent!  Feel free to email us at medplusconnect@gmail.com.

We are spending the last few hours of the day gathering shipping documents and preparing summary lists of the supplies/equipment that we shipped.  We are heading to the Ministry of Health early tomorrow morning to review the incoming shipments and discuss plans for the future.  Fingers crossed that all goes well.

Time for Brooke's first Ghanaian meal! :)

Emma Lawrence, Emily Nix, and Brooke Edwards