The Olympics are in full swing which means patriotic inertia and a warm blanket of goodwill are fast becoming the overriding emotion in most of us. The intermingling of cultures and a diverse spectrum of people representing their nations on our screens makes the world seem much smaller & more interconnected than we thought it was. It is.

We can all talk ’til we’re blue in the face about the fiscal benefits of our service, but let’s not forget to recognize some ancillary goodwill benefits of our service. Humanitarian rewards that harness the powers of an interconnected global marketplace to benefit people on a higher level than just monetary savings. The redemption of equipment that has been cast aside.

A medical facility in Tanzania now has the ability to perform full panoramic X-rays, vastly improving the quality of healthcare in the area. That same X-Ray machine had been used in a thriving American suburb less than 6 months before. An anesthesia machine made obsolete by emerging technology in America ended up in Chile where it was used during a critical surgery. Or perhaps the story of some patient monitors sold by a well funded metropolitan hospital that ended up at a struggling, under-funded rural hospital in America.

Just a couple of examples of thousands of similar transactions that occur every year. Maybe you sell an un-needed X-Ray machine to a doctor just a few states away who is able to stay afloat with the money he saved buying used. Or maybe you sell a piece of equipment that goes to a village half-way around the world and becomes a critical part of the local healthcare infrastructure.

We aren’t talking about saving the world one pulse oximeter at a time. We know that these positive effects are just small drops in an ocean, but they still add up. This is just one way our world has benefited from the interconnectivity created by new technologies and emerging markets. When you choose to resell your old or no longer needed equipment not only does that equipment get a chance at redemption, but it might give someone else a second chance at better health.