Planning your donation: what information to gather

Comprehensive medical equipment needs assessments are a significant undertaking, and are typically done by trained biomedical engineers.

It is therefore worth checking if the healthcare facility you are working with has already conducted their own needs assessment.

Of course, determining the needs and capacities of the health facility should be proportional to the proposed donation. For a small donation with a few simple items, this should not be too difficult.

However, for a very large donation – for example multiple container loads of equipment, or very complex equipment, a more comprehensive needs assessment for medical devices should be done. Humatem’s ‘Preliminary Assessment Method’ guide provides a detailed framework for this.

If you are planning a complex medical equipment support project, or large donations, we would suggest that you read that guide in full. You can find English and French versions of all their guides here.

For the purposes of this course, we would simply recommend reviewing the fact-sheets attached, and using these as a template for conducting your research while planning your donation.

Please read the two fact-sheets attached below before proceeding to the next step:

• Key information about the health facility
• Country data and health policy

Talking point

Beyond the fact sheets attached what other key information do you think is important to consider when planning the donation?