Lives over landfills: waste not, want not: diverted from the trash heap, unused, unopened, quality medical supplies could prevent millions of deaths.

• Author: Redding, Charles
• Position: Medicine & Health

NEARLY 6,000,000 children died last year before their fifth birthday. Around the globe, that is 16,000 kids per day, 700 per hour and 11 per minute. Tragically, more than half of these early deaths could have been prevented with access to simple, affordable medical care, according to the World Health Organization. At the same time, U.S. hospitals are generating more than 2,500,000 tons of medical waste each year. Much of that "garbage" is unused medical supplies and equipment, including anesthesia machines, ultrasound systems, and other perfectly usable medical gear in high demand in impoverished communities. These items often are tossed aside to make room for newer models.

In the U.S., our greatest asset can become our greatest weakness. In constantly striving to innovate--a noble goal--our quest for the next shiny object too often distracts us from the broader mission of helping those most in need of modern medical technologies. Reminders of this crisis are everywhere. I heard a story of a doctor performing surgeries with one hand. His reasoning?--he had to conserve medical gloves; he was running low again.

In other impoverished areas, hospitals are washing disposable gloves and using them for multiple procedures on different patients. Surgical gowns, masks, and shoe covers--items that seem so commonplace in many medical settings-are nowhere to be found in far too many regions. This cannot stand, especially when the solutions are so within our reach. To solve this problem, we must enter the far reaches of developing countries and extend our hands to people when they cry out for help.

As any doctor knows, though, you cannot fix an ailment without both a proper diagnosis and prescription. I would suggest that true progress will come only when philanthropic, governmental, and business partners start identifying better treatments for this chronic shortage of medical supplies and equipment.

A chemical engineer by training, I spent more than two decades traveling the world. Time and again I saw the disparity in medical supplies in even some of the fastest growing economies, such as China, India and Mexico. I came to the conclusion that there had to be a better way.

When I discovered MedShare, a nonprofit dedicated to improving health care and the environment through the efficient recovery and redistribution of surplus medical supplies and equipment, I immediately was inspired. MedShare's mission has evolved today by focusing on improving the...