What Ghana has to Teach U.S. Healthcare

By Tim Spence

A team of St. Louis-area physicians who call themselves MISSION:318 recently approached designers about a project in Ghana. For eight years, the physicians had been visiting a town called Yendi, in northern Ghana, for weeklong volunteer surgery trips.

The level of healthcare in Ghana is currently very low, whereas the level of healthcare in the U.S. is considerably higher, but they are facing the same concerns.

In partnership with local stakeholders, doctors in the U.S. raised funds to support the work, packed a shipping container with equipment, and traveled to Yendi with designers for seven days, seeing patients and laying the groundwork for a new facility to serve the local populace.