Medical devices in Sub-Saharan Africa: optimal assistance via a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) in Benin

Abstract

In limited resources settings, Health Technology Management (HTM) presents specific challenges, which significantly differ from those faced in higher income settings. In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), HTM requires holistic approaches based on reliable information on medical devices operationalized in local medical locations, which may differ significantly from the USA or European ones. Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) tools offer unprecedented opportunities to optimize medical device organization and management in SSA. Nonetheless, CMMS for SSA should be designed to meet real local needs and facing local economic and organizational constraints. This paper describes the results of a project aimed to design and deploy a context-driven CMMS tool, called BGMaint-KMBenin^, which was designed, developed, tested, validated and deployed in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique d’Abomey-Calavi, University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin. The methods followed to design the CMMS, was inspired by closed-loop control theory. It is based on the idea that an effective CMMS could have been designed using as reference international standards and best practices, while controlling and optimizing CMMS inputs and outputs basing upon information and data measured in Beninese medical locations, following a closed-loop feedback control strategy. The tool is currently fully functional in three Beninese hospitals. The successful method used to design this tool represents a best-practice of optimal co-design for Sub-Saharan Africa, which could be adapted and reused in similar projects aiming to design and deploy health technologies for low-income settings. In perspective, the project aims to enhance BGMaint-KM Benin^ and scale it up at the national level. The adoption of such a tool could represent an effective base for comparative studies among African countries.