EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Free discussion Requests for Service Manuals

The arguments are well taken. But ...

What if you do have the knowledge and/or the experience to work on the kit, but simply lack the technical information?

Also ... please note where the majority of these requests come from. Who is going to pay for an engineer with a certificate to travel out there?

And one last thought:- who benefits from having equipment laying around for months (years), quietly deteriorating away, for the want of (what is often) a simple repair?

I agree fully with Sean on passing on service manuals to people who have not being trained in that equipment .As most new equipment firstly has very few if any replacement parts at board level so generally all you can do is calibrate the unit and to do that you need either the relevant software or test jigs to suit that piece of equipment without those things you cannot calibrate or service the unit correctly so you would be putting suspect equipment into service putting both user and patients at risk

Then you should first try to obtain said information from whatever, legitimate, source is available in your country?

Taking the obvious copyright issues out of the equation, sending copies of manuals to individuals whilst knowing nothing about their technical knowledge and abilities is still fullhardy at best as these can be downright dangerous in the wrong hands.

I accept your point that it is undesirable to have kit quietly deteriorating away but I am sure anyone would agree, regardless of location, that it is also undesirable to have any piece of equipment likely to cause direct harm to a patient due to it being badly repaired or maintained.

While sean sir's arguement is true.. In some cases what junior people like me need is a way to find out the depth of the problem..
if the problem requires high levels of expertise, then, people like us can persuade our managements to go to the vendor/manufacturer for service, with valid data.
If its something simple, but doesn't appear so, and we directly take it to the vendor/manufacturer then they are gonna skin us alive with their bills and the management is then gonna roast us for having done so.

With all the pressures he has bearing down upon him (the doctors, the "bosses", etc.), it is highly likely that the tech will "have a go" anyway.

Far better, I would have thought, to give him half a chance of coming up trumps by making technical information available if he needs it. Surely there's less chance of him causing any harm that way?

To be blunt (and why not?), we're talking about the so-called "Third World" here, Mates ... that is, well outside the "comfort zone" of those in the (again, so-called) "West"! Conditions are different Out There ... but there are still hospitals, still (many) patients in need, and still (lots of) kit to be fixed.

Still half a chance then that he (and she if we're going to absolutely correct) won't 'come up trumps' and potentially cause harm then?

Morals and ethics may or may not differ in the 'Third World" from us here in the "West" but it is therefore down to ones own individual morals and ethics how they disseminate information. I would certainly not advocate the distribution of service manuals to unknown third parties on both moral and legal grounds.

Off the cuff Risk Assessment:-

1) Chance of screwing up without a manual :: > 75%
2) Chance of screwing up with a manual :: 50%*

Also ... chance of the tech being a "she" :: < 5%

The term "half a chance" is a turn or phrase, an idiom, and is not (usually) to be taken literally. Substitute the word "opportunity" if you like.

* According to your reckoning.

Hi Guys

Just to throw in my 5 cents worth (inflation you know..)

We in the antipodeas are about as far east or west if you go the other way find it very hard to get some information and like Bala Vignesh above having some information to hand is a god send. Usually for us its a case if we need of the manuals to work out if its the equipment or user that faulty (usually about 60/40 split in favour of the equipment).

And, like Geoff above I would not sell or make monetry gains from passing on any manuals, sod copyright I just want to get the Doc' of my back and get stuff working again.

From the shaky isle, Phil.

I think it needs to be understood that, in many parts of the world, OEM training or support is simply not available or at best beyond the funding available. Given that, ask yourself this. If you had a family member in one of those areas who needed a life saving operation would you prefer....

A/ an anaesthetic machine that had been serviced by a (non OEM trained) biomed tech with a copy of the manual or..

B/ no anaesthetic machine at all

In many parts of the world, these are the only two choices available

I, for one, will continue to provide whatever info/support I can to those who need it and, having seen the way things can be in other countries, I would encourage others to do the same.

Agree with comments that in some parts of the world service manuals will be a god send. However if we are having any of our current equipment within our so called "developed country" hospitals serviced by third party service providers, ask them for a copy of their updated training certificate (the person that is doing the service, not the providers company). If you do manage to get it from them, verify it with the manuafacturer - most will be invalid or out of date!! Who then is to blame when it all goes wrong - the service provider or the hospital who awarded them the service contract in the first place?