DAYTON — Midmark Corp., a leading provider of medical, dental and veterinary equipment, technology and services, announced that a grant has been provided to the Partnership for Quality Medical Donations by the Midmark Foundation.
The grant will support the PQMD initiative to further develop its monitoring, evaluation and metrics project.
Formally known as Collective Impact 2030, a collective of PQMD staff, contractors, members and industry experts are working to develop a series of metrics to better understand the collective effect that the health care industry makes when donating medical goods, equipment and services.
Through PQMD, corporations and non-governmental organizations work in partnership to bring high-quality donated medicines and supplies to global health programming. These contributions are valued in the billions of dollars annually and cost tens of thousands to millions of dollars to implement. Donations serve vulnerable populations through ongoing donations, disaster response efforts, single donations and medical mission support thereby focusing on health systems strengthening, disaster response and specific health conditions.
Decision-makers need useful evidence and common metrics about their programs to compare against industry benchmarks to catalyze success and reduce barriers to effective, quality, needed and timely donations. World Health Organization guidelines emphasize the need for monitoring and evaluation of donation programs; yet, few evaluations assess the outcomes of medical donation programs.
PQMD has embarked on the Collective Impact 2030 Initiative to fill this gap. Working closely with its 42 members, PQMD is developing a shared framework and nurturing shared terminology to establish better and different metrics. The initiative, which began in 2015, has developed the first edition of the PQMD Resource Guide for Evaluating Donated Medicines. Other significant milestones include proof-of-concept site visits, an evaluation plan checklist, an initial set of impact indicators and a publication related to the scope of M&E practices among medical donation programs.
The initiative, is being led by Mitch Eiting, global philanthropic and corporate giving manager for Midmark and president of the Midmark Foundation. Eiting brings more than 32 years’ experience in corporate donation programs to the PQMD group and has been instrumental in its transformation.
“We are very excited to partner with PQMD and its members on this important initiative,” Eiting said. “Together, we will be able to provide the necessary tools to health care organizations for a more effective donation process.”
PQMD Collective Impact 2030 has three goals:
- Develop a suite of technical M&E tools within PQMD’s signature Resource Guide for Evaluating Medical Donation Programs to provide practical structure and resources for corporations and NGOs interested in increasing their capacity for donation-specific outcomes tracking.
- Support an active Community of Practice to explore best practices and barriers to effective medical product donations.
- Create a collective impact coalition to identify and utilize shared indicators in donated medical products that reflect a contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals.
“The Collective Impact team, working closely with Midmark and other members, is in progress to making great strides in 2019, and we look forward to sharing achievements and milestones in the months ahead,” Elizabeth Ashbourne, PQMD executive director, said.
The Midmark Foundation supports organizations involved with education and human services and awards scholarships to children of Midmark employees. Visit midmark.com to learn more about Midmark. For more about PQMD, visit www.pqmd.org
