Assistant Professor Mike Passafaro, D.O., of NYIT’s Center for Global Health

During his stay in El Salvador, Sparling tracked visits and the status of patients. Such data is useful in analyzing the results of NYIT’s visits to various global locales as well as planning future trips. And it’s an area of interest to Bhuma Krishnamachari, assistant professor for clinical sciences and director of clinical research at the Center for Global Health. As an epidemiologist, she studies patterns of health care in defined populations to identify risk factors, collect and analyze data, and interpret results.

“Ultimately, if you’re going to study a group of people, the goal should be to help them,” she says. “It’s irresponsible to gather data and not do anything with it.”

One area she is focusing on is NYIT’s annual visits to Ghana, which combine the expertise of engineers, doctors, and educators to deliver fresh water as well as health care education and services to populations in Oworobong. Krishnamachari is tracking the efforts of NYIT’s visits to the region since 2010 to find ways to better improve the design and structure of future trips. The Center for Global Health established a mission site in Oworobong, Ghana, in partnership with the Jesse Rohde Foundation.

“When we go to a community like Oworobong, it would be presumptuous to think that we have all the answers,” says Ahmed. “We tell them that we are here to help. They tell us what they want and then we collaborate with the community. This applies to all disciplines in global health.”

In 2010, the NYIT team assisted pregnant women with prenatal care and provided medical checkups for checking glucose levels and urinary tract infections. 

Physician assistant studies student Jessica Stein (M.S. ’12) was part of the team that spent more than three weeks in the region. “It was my first time seeing patients,” she says. “It was an amazing experience to be immersed in another culture. We really can’t learn these things in the classroom.”

Associate Professor Sarah Meyland of NYIT’s School of Engineering and Computing Sciences worked with students from the university’s Engineers Without Borders chapter to help them finalize a potable water system for residents in the Oworobong region.

“When we arrived, there was no infrastructure for clean water or power,” she says. “The student teams had to live like local residents, which can be fairly demanding.”

The team designed a system incorporating solar power as well as a large roofing system that acts as a rain harvesting system. Meyland expects that even a small storm could generate about 500 to 1,000 gallons of water. 

“Long term, we hope to provide a conventional water system through the ground and ensure it is drinkable,” says Meyland. She and NYIT engineering students are also working with the School of Architecture and Design, using an NYIT research grant to design a recycling center in Costa Rica. Next year, Meyland will travel with two graduate students to that country, and if the rainwater system is not feasible, they will explore additional water and power possibilities.

“It’s a more demanding project, because it is a much more public facility with a higher water demand,” says Meyland.

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