SHARE aims to provide international medical relief and reduce medical waste. We collect unused, clean medical supplies from the operating rooms at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and distribute them to clinics in developing nations.
Our Story
Many items from a surgical procedure that have not been used such as gloves, sutures, and gowns are usually discarded. Although these materials may be clean, these items cannot be utilized for a different procedure within the hospital because they are not considered sterile. In addition, legal and regulatory rules prohibit redistributing and reusing supplies. However, many of the safe materials that are disqualified for use in US operating rooms are in high demand in developing countries. SHARE currently recovers, sorts, and ships out approximately 2000 lbs of supplies from the Johns Hopkins Hospital each year!
Our History
The creation of SHARE at Johns Hopkins was inspired by a similar program called REMEDY that was founded in 1991 at Yale University School of Medicine. REMEDY, like SHARE, serves to address the shortages of needed medical supplies in developing countries by donating the surplus and unused instruments from US hospitals. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine SHARE chapter was founded with the same ideals. Our founder and leading doctor is Dr. Richard Redett, the Director of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Our Impact
SHARE has packaged, sorted, and shipped about 875 pounds of supplies each semester
SHARE has 163 members registered in its undergraduate division and commits a total of 769 hours of volunteer hours each semester
Each semester, SHARE packages about 6875 clean medical items individually to be shipped
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