Global Healing and Partners in Health Collaborate to Bring Safe Blood to Central Haiti

BERKELEY, CA--(Marketwire - Dec 8, 2011) - Global Healing, a leading non-profit organization devoted to providing modern medical equipment, training and supplies to the developing world, has announced that it has been invited to assist Partners In Health (PIH), a premier international healthcare and development organization, to establish a blood bank and transfusion service at Mirebalais National Teaching Hospital in central Haiti. The teaching hospital is a major referral and training center currently being constructed under PIH's direction.

The extensive services to be offered at Mirebalais National Teaching Hospital will draw referral patients from across the country and create a strong demand for blood products. Global Healing's blood banking program will play a key role at the new site by supplying the equipment and training necessary to perform transfusions, blood screening, phlebotomy, compatibility testing, donor outreach programs and other functions essential to a safe and adequate blood supply.

"With this new hospital, Partners In Health is looking to truly redefine healthcare delivery in the public sector of Haiti," said David Walton, M.D., M.P.H., director, Mirebalais National Teaching Hospital Project, Partners In Health, Boston, Massachusetts. "In order to deliver world-class health care, blood banking and transfusion services are absolutely essential. We are thrilled to be partnering with Global Healing to help Partners In Health expand, modernize, and standardize these lifesaving services to the tens of thousands who will frequent the Mirebalais National Teaching Hospital."

In the past, PIH has successfully partnered with the Haitian Red Cross to bring blood services to Cange, Hinche and other sites on Haiti's Central Plateau. Global Healing will draw from its own extensive experience modernizing blood banks and use PIH's deep local knowledge to improve and expand the blood service in the region.

"Global Healing is eager to work with Partners In Health, an established nonprofit in Haiti with a strong, consistent presence, to provide a much needed service in a country where there is an acute blood shortage," said Luke Ifland, president, Global Healing, Berkeley, Calif. "Our program will address this deficit and improve clinical blood use in the Central Plateau of Haiti."

About Partners In Health
Partners In Health (PIH) is an international health care organization based in Boston that works in 12 countries to deliver quality health care to people and communities devastated by joint burdens of poverty and disease. For more than 25 years, PIH has been providing vital health care services in Haiti's Central Plateau and Artibonite Valley. Working alongside the Ministry of Health to serve a catchment area of 1.2 million people, PIH has become one of the largest health care providers in the country. More information can be found at www.pih.org.

About Global Healing
Global Healing is a US-registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to providing modern medical equipment, supplies and training to the developing world. It was established in 1994, initially to train and equip a team of pediatric cardiology surgeons in Tbilisi, Georgia to perform the nation's first ever pediatric open-heart surgeries. Global Healing has since started medical programs in Armenia, Honduras, Dominica, Moldova and Nepal. More information can be found at www.globalhealing.org.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. We undertake no obligation to revise or update information herein to reflect events or circumstances in the future, even if new information becomes available.