Biomedical engineer Britta Johnston helped transform Build Health International’s approach to medical equipment training, bringing practical solutions to resource-constrained healthcare settings across Africa.
When Britta Johnston joined Build Health International (BHI) in 2022, she found something rare in the medical device field: the freedom to innovate without bureaucratic constraints. Coming from the heavily regulated biomedical industry, she embraced BHI’s nimble approach to solving critical healthcare challenges in low-resource settings.
Johnston’s work evolved from oxygen equipment maintenance to comprehensive biomedical training programs. She learned to adapt her engineering expertise to environments where replacement parts weren’t readily available, developing creative troubleshooting methods alongside African colleagues. A defining project in Uganda allowed her to lead training sessions with Senior Biomedical Engineer Tom Monaghan, teaching local engineers while gaining insights into the unique challenges of their healthcare systems.
“When you have any piece of hardware that you could need in the store down the road, it’s completely different,” Johnston said in a post on the BHI blog. “You have to change your mindset… It’s thinking of all the possibilities of what could happen and making sure, before you go to do this activity, that there’s a way forward.”
The role transformed Johnston from trainee to mentor. She helped expand BHI’s oxygen engineering team while advocating for better resources and recognition for biomedical engineers in partner hospitals. Her experience highlighted a crucial shift in global healthcare: as medical treatment becomes increasingly equipment-dependent, building local technical expertise becomes vital for sustainable care delivery.
Through her work, Johnston demonstrated that effective healthcare technology transfer isn’t just about providing equipment — it’s about fostering self-sufficiency through knowledge sharing and practical training.
Read more about Britta Johnston’s work for Build Health International in this post: Britta Johnston: Advancing Global Health Engineering
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