While all twenty members of the National HealthCorps in Pittsburgh serve at a site somewhere within Allegheny County, the impact of our service resonates much farther than that. The members of our Corps work on projects and initiatives geared towards resolving a variety of public health related issues that affect people from all walks of life. As the volunteer supervisor and outreach coordinator at Global Links, I have had the unique opportunity to work on reducing health disparities both nationally and internationally.
Global Links is a medical surplus recovery organization, or MSRO, that takes unwanted, unused, unexpired medical supplies/equipment from hospitals in the area and redistributes them to under-resourced healthcare facilities that work with vulnerable and underserved populations, both in the United States, and internationally in countries such as Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia.
Through my role in HealthCorps, I have been able to witness how improved access to basic medical supplies and equipment can make a world of difference to both individual patients and the medical system as a whole. By providing supplies to a clinic or healthcare facility that is underfunded, we allow them to redistribute their budget in a way that allows them to increase the scope of their operations and to improve or expand upon the medical services or programs they already have in place. Then, with these expanded services, more patients can be seen and the infrastructure of a healthcare network can continue to grow.
Internationally, Global Links partners with organizations such as the World Health Organization or the Pan-American Health Organization to identify and work with healthcare facilities that could benefit from the resources we can offer. Locally, since many of the other HealthCorps members work at or with organizations that are under-resourced, the network and connections I have gained from my fellow HealthCorps members have been essential to helping expand both Global Link’s mission, and the missions’ of the local Community Partners we network with.
