Portable labs may be saving lives, say experts. Medical treatment is tough in any setting, but humanitarian situations make it worse.
Portable labs helping people (Photo: Google)
Innovations in Crisis Healthcare from Portable Labs to Social Media Communication
Stress and limited resources challenge nurses and doctors during humanitarian crises. Portable labs are saving more lives in Ukraine and Israel-Hamas battles despite battlefield medical training and equipment.
Experts recommend technical and organizational changes to guarantee people get crucial healthcare alongside surgery to prevent public health crises. Communication challenges forced doctors in crisis zones to rely on telegrams or phone calls for advice from outside colleagues. Crisis-zone doctors use social media and connectivity. It changes clinicians’ capacity to seek help in uncertain settings, says Stanford University School of Medicine clinical professor Tom Weiser.
This modification allows cross-border collaboration and instruction via phone, WhatsApp, Telegram, and YouTube videos, facilitating fast medical care.
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MSF’s Mini-Lab, Evolution in Amputations, and Emphasis on Primary Care
MSF created the “Mini-Lab,” a portable clinical laboratory that is easy to set up and economical during deployments. This invention solves the absence of conventional labs in crisis zones, and MSF says non-experts may use it after minimal training.
MSF’s deputy program manager for Palestine, Dr. Amber Alayyan, underlines the Mini-Lab’s unprecedented ability to deploy quickly to war zones. This small microbiological lab has helped long-term surgical missions in Gaza, Ukraine, and Syria solve hygienic issues due to catastrophic injuries.
Amputation has evolved from the 16th-century invention of artery forceps to modern procedures to improve surgery. According to Dr. Amber Alayyan, recent crises have prioritized basic primary care for victims, a change from previous conflicts.
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