By Katherine Harmon (Click here for the original article) In the
U.S. it can be difficult to avoid getting an MRI, laboratory
analysis or at least an X-ray in any given year. But in poor
areas, medical technologies–from expensive screening machines to
simple devices–are often as rare as specialists who know how to
work them. So, in an effort to improve health the world over,
many well-meaning organizations and governments donate new or
used equipment or medicines to areas that lack them. These
contributions have surely saved lives and improved health in
many places, but too often, that technology goes unused–or
misused–because it is a poor match for the setting where it
lands, according to a new report published online July 31 in The
Lancet Commissions. Some of those donations can even “place a
burden on recipients,” the authors led by Peter Howitt of the
Institute for Global Health Innovation noted. Some 40 percent of
all health care equipment in the developing world, for example,
is not currently in use, wh