Integration.
My first ever medical-system integration project, Los Palos, East Timor, 2005
Here is the first-ever biomed integration project that I ever led.
Two weeks prior, I had serendipitously met an expat called “Jack” in Dili, who had been tasked with installing two dental suites in remote clinics in East Timor. The two donated dental suites had been packed up together with all the parts and tools needed to install them, and shipped to a religious centre for storage. But there had been delays, and Mr Jack only had time to install one before needing to return home.
We spent some days in Liquica, installing the first dental set into a clinic. There was no forklift to remove the air-compressor for the back of the truck, bit no matter, we all joined in to help manouver the machine down a steel ladder and lever it around to the back of the building.
Moving a dental compressor by hand, Liquica, East Timor, 2005.
With the first dental suite installed, I was sent to Los Palos (the most remote, Eastern tip of East Timor) with a second, crated-up dental suite, boxes of parts and Jack’s tools. Being afraid of doing the work on my own, I was fortunate enough to meet another traveller, who was fluent in several languages, and was able to speak to the local religious sisters to get things done.
Integration of medical systems is where medical-grade technology meets non-medical building-services. For dental suites, we must organise five services :
Power
Water
Suction
Drainage
Compressed air
Liquica dental installation, led by Mr Jack, Liquica, East Timor, 2005
My assistant was brave enough to use an electric jackhammer (powered by six $3 extension cords from a petrol-generator) to break up the floor tiles and concrete slab on a newly finished clinic room in the most remote village in the country. We spent a week getting the services connected and the equipment running. Thanks to the hospitality of the Cannosian sisters in Los Palos, and to Mr Jack for lending us his tools, training and expertise.