Editorial comment on Malkin and Keane (2010).

Malkin and Keane (Med Biol Eng Comput, 2010) take an innovative approach to determine if unused, broken medical and laboratory equipment could be repaired by volunteers with limited resources. Their positive results led them to suggest that resource-poor countries might benefit from an on-the-job educational program for local high school graduates. The program would train biomedical technician assistants (BTAs) who would repair medical devices and instrumentation and return them to service. This is a program worth pursuing in resource-poor countries.