ERT, a global solution provider for patient safety and efficacy endpoint data collection based in Wilmington, N.C., is continuing its outreach program, through which ERT provides equipment, financial support and other resources to support quality healthcare delivery throughout the world.

Since 2013, ERT has donated dozens of electro-cardiogram (ECG) devices to Partners In Health (PIH), a non-governmental organization working alongside its Haitian sister organization, Zanmi Lasante, to provide health care throughout Haiti’s Central Plateau and lower Artibonite Valley.  Donations also have been made to GHESKIO, a Haitian non-governmental organization and the largest provider of HIV and tuberculosis treatment in the Caribbean. The devices are used to provide quality healthcare in PIH and GHESKIO clinics throughout the resource-poor settings of Haiti.

"One particular way in which the ECG devices are being used is to diagnose and treat cardiac conduction disturbances, which can be caused by medications for the treatment of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB),” said Serena Koenig, M.D., MPH, associate physician in the division of global health equity and the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  “Two new drugs for the treatment of MDR-TB recently have been developed and are available for compassionate use for some cases of MDR-TB treatment in Haiti and other resource-poor settings.  However, these new drugs also can cause changes to the electrical activity in the heart, which is why access to ECG devices is critical during treatment.”

Koenig continued, “MDR-TB is much more difficult and expensive to treat than drug-susceptible disease, with cure rates of only 50% worldwide. GHESKIO and PIH—the only two MDR-TB treatment centers in Haiti—have among the best reported outcomes for MDR-TB in the world, with cure rates of over 80%.”

“It’s important that physicians throughout Haiti and other low-resource areas have the tools they need to deliver quality care,” said Jim Corrigan, president and CEO, ERT. “We are honored to support the great work that PIH and GHESKIO are doing to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need.”