Situation

Kosovo has many Health Technology Management (HTM) challenges that have a significant negative impact on its ability to deliver needed health care services to its population.  Since the end of its war in 1999, many donor countries have come alongside to help rebuild the healthcare system, but there are many remaining medical device challenges.

GAME was piloted with the Ministry of Health and national clinical engineering group in Kosovo in Eastern Europe beginning in October 2005, with the help of US consultant George Johnston.  WHO and ACCE are supporting this work, as are the Infratech global HTM management and BIOMEDTALK global BMET technical support listservs.

These challenges include provision on a prioritized basis of five needed medical equipment management and technical support factors, as follows:
(1) repair/replacement parts
(2) maintenance/operation manuals
(3) maintenance provider technical training
(4) provider to recipient troubleshooting Relationships
(5) Funds needed to implement high priority HTM solutions.