Cures

Mission

• CURES is a unique competence center focusing on reinforcing primary healthcare systems in southern countries with reliable and sustainable electricity supply and with appropriate equipments.

CHALLENGES

The healthcare system in Cameroon – which is representative of many countries of the South – suffers extensively from unreliable power grids and electrical infrastructures. More particularly, problems related to electricity supply have a very significant impact on the capacity of hospitals and health centers to provide quality and modern medical care:

• The numerous power outages severely undermine the availability of essential medical equipment, such as x-ray and ultrasound units, lighting in the operating room, analysis equipment, and cooling systems used in morgues or to preserve medicine and vaccines.
• Many devices are damaged or even destroyed by the instabilities or disturbances of the power supply. According to a study by the WHO, grid failures are responsible for one third of the breakdowns of medical devices.

In spite of major investments in medical equipment, electrical problems lead to a sharp decline in the efficiency of the healthcare system

Goals

• Becoming a world-renowned competence center in the field of energy for healthcare systems. Managing interdisciplinary and international research programmes involving exchanges and collaborations as well as the infrastructure of a cutting-edge laboratory.
• Training researchers and engineers on energy-related technologies as well as the design, implementation and maintenance of electrical systems and equipment.  
• Conducting advanced research on issues related to the generation, distribution, storage, management, protection and efficient use of electrical power in hospitals, as well as on issues related to appropriate medical equipments.
• Developing technological solutions that are efficient, low-cost, sustainable and adapted to the context of developing countries.
• Securing the deployment of solutions by studying their profitability, funding and sustainability, while enabling the technology transfer to local companies and supporting entrepreneurship through an incubator.
• Developing partnerships with public institutions (Ministry of Health and hospitals), as well as private companies and NGOS working in the field of energy and health.
• Measuring the impact of technologies in the field while disseminating the results and the know-how.