Technology products and services should be accessible, ideally found at a nearby location that offers a variety of items in addition to convenient and reliable technical support — things that matter to most consumers. These attributes were top of mind when Barbara Wasowska, psychiatric therapist with the Johns Hopkins Hospital Community Psychiatry Program, had an issue with her laptop and decided to take it to the new Johns Hopkins Tech Hub.

This summer, the Johns Hopkins Technology Innovation Center and IT@ JH opened the Tech Hub on the East Baltimore medical campus, next door to Atwater’s restaurant. Any Johns Hopkins University and Health System faculty or staff member, or student with a Johns Hopkins ID, has access to the store. The Tech Hub offers a variety of computers, tablets and accessories as well as in-store services, and customers can make purchases for professional use with approved departmental funds or for personal use with a credit card.

Wasowska contacted the store when the iCloud setting on her Apple MacBook Pro laptop was not working. She had already called the Apple help desk and was told it was unable to fix iCloud problems. After explaining her issue to Michael Kulik, Tech Hub store manager and technician, she left her laptop with him for a couple hours, and when she returned it was fixed.

“My experience at the Tech Hub and my interaction with Michael were nothing but wonderful,” says Wasowska. “He grasped the problem immediately, spent time to explain what was wrong and how he fixed it, and even helped me synchronize my new iPhone with my laptop.”