Twinning over the Internet [medical equipment repair]

The idea of one to one relationships between departments in developed and developing countries has been around for several years. In the 1980s a survey by the IAEA showed that a large proportion of equipment supplied to developing countries was out of action but this was often for the want of a component costing just a few dollars. As part of a spare parts project, laboratories in developed countries would supply small items to 'twins' in developing countries and be reimbursed by the IAEA. One argument against such a scheme was that a component destined for a gamma camera could end up for example in a professor's television. A small amount of such leakage would be trivial compared with the effective loss of money in expensive equipment standing idle. The integrity of health workers and the common desire to run a successful department should reduce this leakage to a very small proportion of the cost of supplying the apparatus.