Refurbished Devices & Information Technology Services

Used smart phones, tablets, computers, keyboard, mice, and monitors needed and tech support needed

One of our nonprofit partners is The OpenEMR Foundation.  They manage the most popular free and open source electronic medical recordkeeping system.

It is downloaded over 5000 times per month and used all over the world.  Often by underserved clinics in low income countries.

OpenEMR is somewhat unique because it runs off a web server but after the initial installation it does not require access to the internet.

If a clinic connects whatever device the web server is running on to a Local Area Network (LAN) with a Wireless Access Point (WAP), then any device with Wi-Fi or Ethernet access can connect to OpenEMR with only a web browser, not having to download any additional software.

You can try out a demo installation here.

They automatically wipe and reinstall it usually once per day.  So any data that you enter will be visible by others and won't stick around.

Because of OpenEMR, so many clinics have been able to move away from paper records and join us in the 21st century of medical recordkeeping even without reliable internet access.

But that means clinics also need: 

Computers/laptops or servers.

Wireless Access Points including hotspots 

Tablets

Phones

Monitors, keyboard, mice, etc.

We can use our contacts at the OpenEMR Foundation and their community web forum to find clinics that could really use the extra help.  Like this one in Haiti.

When we find a clinic that could really use the additional hardware, we check to see if there is a chapter of Rotary International, Kiwanis International, Lion's Clubs International, etc. nearby we can partner with to ensure the hardware gets to where it needs to go.

Also for import/export reasons, it simplifies things to have an organization with chapters in both the sending and receiving country facilitate international shipping.  Those organizations are also likely eligible for discounted shipping rates due to their nonprofit status. 

The clinic would then arrange to meet with their local chapter of the club to collect the hardware when it arrives.

In terms of tax deductions for our corporate sponsors:

The fair market value of donated tech like phones, laptops, etc. should be tax deductible.

As is the time of any employees spent working on the program.  It should count as an in-kind donation.

If employees ever have downtime between customers and a used laptop that can be donated on-hand, they could install some version of Linux with a bootable USB drive. 

OpenEMR uses a tool called Docker.  Meaning once Linux is installed you only need to enter a few commands from the command line and leave it alone for a while. 

If there's time, they could also install other software packages like Libre office, do some initial configurations, and set the language based on wherever it is meant to go, etc.

The international organization handling the shipping should be able to provide a shipping label and schedule a pickup.

We could probably ask organizations like the Office Depot Foundation to supply the packaging and miscellaneous office supplies to include in the "care package" going to Haiti, Honduras, etc. too.

And of course monetary donations to the foundation are always appreciated and tax deductible and help support programs like this one.

We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with corporate sponsors that can help us with bringing high quality electronic medical recordkeeping to clinics in the developing world.