In this article, supplied with the help of the International Federation of Hospital Engineering (IFHE), five co-authors* from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) – a German organisation that seeks to encourage and co-ordinate international cooperation in areas ranging from sustainable development to fund management.
Its partner organisation, IFHE member, the Republican Research Center of Emergency Medicine (RRCEM) in Uzbekistan, discuss the use of medical technology in the central Asian country. They also explain how a GIZ project is helping to boost the number of skilled staff, improve quality assurance and management in procurement, logistics, and maintenance, and promote good training of medical and technical staff, across Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan is a landlocked country located in Central Asia with 30 million inhabitants (2013), of which 37% live in urban, and 63% rural, locations. Its GDP is currently US$ 2,000 per capita. Demographics indicate that over 40 per cent of the population is under 30 years of age, and that the average life expectancy rate is at 71 years.
The demise of the Soviet Union era has brought several challenges to the Uzbekistan national health system. During the past 10 years, Uzbekistan has experienced a dramatic increase in non-communicable diseases, with, for instance, a morbidity rate of 63 per cent for cardiovascular disease.1,2 Furthermore, rising trends in infectious diseases (particularly respiratory), diabetes, cancer, and traumatology cases, are evident (see also Fig. 1). This poses major challenges to a public health system already faced with limited resources, and highlights the significant importance of investments in diagnostic and therapeutic technologies to address such demands.
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