Can an Old Mill Town Become the Silicon Valley of Human Organ Manufacturing?

In 2020, Nigeria's Rural Electrification Agency installed a 50-kilowatt solar-hybrid system at Gombe State Specialist Hospital, providing uninterrupted electricity to critical units, including the ICU and emergency departments. Since its installation, maternal mortality dropped from 15-20 deaths monthly to 1-2 per month, and neonatal deaths also decreased from 50 to 20-25 monthly. The system has also helped healthcare workers perform life-saving surgeries without interruption, as these surgeries were often delayed or impossible due to power outages.

The Good Samaritan Nutritional Center supports mothers and their babies born with cleft palates in obtaining proper nutrition in order to be eligible for corrective surgery. The Center partners with local health facilities to perform the surgeries. The initiative has been active for 20 years now and has served over 15,000 children.

Some hospitals like OHSU Hospital are free offering RV parking spaces with electric hookups for patients who are traveling great distances for medical treatment. Providing RV parking increases access to health care for patients, specifically those from rural areas. It also helps to improve patient comfort and quality of care, as they’re able to get a good night’s sleep in their RVs, rather than drive through the night or struggle to find lodging elsewhere.

The Bashir Fistula Foundation provides healthcare and connections to necessary medical resources to women suffering from obstetric fistula. Most all surgeries to cure the condition are fully paid for through partnerships between the Foundation and other organizations and medical centers. So far the Foundation has funded more than 100 surgeries.

Health In Harmony uses a one health approach to improve both human health and the health of the environment in Madagascar at the same time. Their programs provide locals with jobs to keep them from turning to illegal logging for income, improve their access to health care, and help farmers increase their yields.

Running Tide Technologies, a shellfish hatchery in Maine, is betting on kelp forests as a way to store carbon deep in the ocean and sell that carbon to corporations looking to combat climate change and offset their own emissions. The startup is growing mini-farms of kelp on biodegradable floats and after a few months, they sink to the seafloor. More research is needed to see if it works, but they already have about 1,600 floats adrift in the ocean and the e-commerce company Shopify is the first to buy carbon offsets from them.

Doctors at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge began piloting the use of new technology in 2015 via a machine called an organ care system (OCS) that allows doctors to restore life to an organ and keep it viable for donation. This technology has now helped doctors increase heart transplantation procedures by 40 percent.

In recent years, there has been a decrease in Canadian organ donors but a comprehensive effort by an Ontario hospital is changing that narrative. From increased specialized training for nurses to adding a donation coordinator to morning rounds, Sudbury’s Health Sciences North has become a model for increasing donor rates.

The first of it's kind, a medical drone base has opened in Rwanda that aims to cut down the time it takes to deliver blood from blood banks to hospitals. Serving 21 rural health facilities throughout the region, the approach is also helping put Rwanda on the map as a technology hub.

Drone-powered medical deliveries are no longer a concept of the future, thanks to Zipline, a California-based start-up that is delivering medical supplies to rural hospitals in Rwanda. While the drones are limited to carrying less than four pounds and dropping the supplies by parachute, this technology is allowing faster delivery and better access to care across the nation.