Haiti ... Telemedicine Support?

[CC-Conrad Clyburn-MedForeSight]

Colleagues,

I spoke/corresponded with a number of MedTech-IQ members yesterday about potential responses to the earthquake in Haiti.

Does a coordinated response involving mobile telemedicine vehicles, i.e., the type developed by CERMUSA and Loma Linda University, existing international volunteer teleconsultation networks, and on the ground medical expertise in Haiti make sense? We may have these capacities within the network.

I think the public health challenges of disease, wound care, chronic disease management, ect., will take the fore over the weeks to come.

Your thoughts?

CC

[Carl Taylor]

Conrad- One issue is bandwidth since comms are quite constrained in Haiti at present. However if the opportunity to support the Haitian relief effort via telemedicine emerges then one resource is the MDRN network. This "group" was put together by David Balch and the ATA a few years ago. It is more of a list of telehealth sites, which have made known their desires to assist in telehealth support than an actual network. I spoke with David yesterday about whether this group ought to be at least polled for their willingness to participate. At the very least there may be a need for help even if the assistance is via sms/txt msg or emails. In the meantime I am in contact with representatives from two health organizations on the ground in Haiti and working with Instedd and Crisis Mappers on trying to get a better understanding of the health needs and how best to meet them. Happy to share as we learn more.
carl taylor

[Cynthia Shelby-Lane, MD]

Carl and Conrad:

I participated in the relief efforts for Katrina (New Orleans) and tooks thousands of dollars worth of meds/supplies to the south.

If medications/medical supplies are needed, please let me know and I can speak to the doctors in Detroit who were so very helpful in their humanitarian efforts in 2005.

Let me know how I can help asap.

ShelbyLaneMD
800-584-4926

[CC-Conrad Clyburn-MedForeSight]

Carl,

Thank you for your thoughtful response. Please keep us informed as your thinking evolves. As mentioned earlier, there are many members of this network with technical and on ground experience/contacts in Haiti. Use us as a resource as you see fit. You and any other members of MedTech-IQ will have our full support.

CC

[Stephen P. Bruttig, Ph.D.]

Conrad, you may want to contact Lou Schriefer, the Managing Director of MED-1 Partners. They have several of the large, expandable vehicle-based medical units like Mobile Medical worked on with P.K. Carlton in the mid-1990s. MED-1 Partners deployed to Katrina and other disasters. They may already be engaged, but it's worth a call.

Steve

[Stephen P. Bruttig, Ph.D.]

CC,
Forgot to give you contact info for Lou Schriefer (RADM, USN, ret'd). Email is [e-mail]
His office phone is 301-519-8033. They're in Bethesda.

[Edward E. Kensinger]

CC,
I think that all of the comments posted thus far are on point.
From what I just heard on the news the 82nd Airborne is sending 3500 troops to assist with the relief effort. If they take their communications assets with them, i.e. the WIN-T, they will have access to as much bandwidth as they require to conduct telemedicine reachback. If they did not, then I believe that the Army could make use of their Expeditionary Signal Battalions to augment the lack of infrastructure and again provide all of the bandwidth required to meet the needs of this mission.
WIN-T will address the long haul communications requirements, but what will still be lacking are the end user medical devices as well as the clinicians on the ground to operate the equipment, clinicians on-site to provide the care recommended from the consult, and the clinical consultation network to reach back to.
I hope that this helps.
Sincerely,
Ed

[CC-Conrad Clyburn-MedForeSight]

Steve and Ed,

Thank you for the excellent information.

Remember, one of the advantages of Web 2.0 technology is that this will all be searchable. So even if this information is not actionable in the short run, we will be able to come back to it later ... when the time is right. I think the most complex challenges will surface in the next few weeks.

CC

[CC-Conrad Clyburn-MedForeSight]

Dr Shelby-Lane (Cynthia),

Thank you. We will continue to gather and share information to see how we, as a community, may be able to help. We will stay in contact, and keep you and the rest of the MedTech-IQ community informed. Thank you, again.

CC

[CC-Conrad Clyburn-MedForeSight]

Conrad,

I saw your email.

AWS Thoughts:

We think the idea of using the Loma Linda Telemedicine Mobile Van is a great idea.

It could be airlifted to Haiti from the local Air Force Base MAC just down the road.

Local Haiti communications that are down now, can be re-established through a temporary Military Comm Link – wireless/wired, and also mobile. We do this in Iraq/Afghanistan all the time.

This facilitates easier insertion into the military support process and contributes right now to the ability to treat the injured.

Badly injured that need specialty care/treatment can be airlifted back to the States via MAC, or via private aircraft which gives civilian volunteer citizens the opportunity to make a contribution.

AWS might be able to jury-rig a contribution of monitoring equipment that could be used in specific applications.

Additionally, there might be an opportunity to use very specialized Healthcare Kiosk Technology which could be inserted to distribute the load away from the center of the catastrophe.

Deployed even moderately well this approach could also support field triage units who are working on the edge of the catastrophe.


Your thoughts in turn… feel free to post this to your response blog as it might provide additional motivation for partners to enjoin.



Miles N. Moore

President & CEO
Advanced Warning Systems, Inc.
6185 Paseo del Norte, Ste. 200-A
Carlsbad, CA 92011
Direct: 760.710.3081
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]

[Medisoft Telemedicine Pvt. Ltd.]

Haiti is passing from one of the biggest tragedy of human society seen.

My company was part of Telemedicine implementation better say disaster telemedicine project during earthquake in Kutch, Gujarat, India on 26th January 2001. In fact we have experienced earthquake trauma as Haiti people facing it today. In first phase immediately after earthquake we tried to do telemedicine using satellite phone. The bandwidth was issue and we can't able to do much. After 2 week; when the eletricity, communication media was working; we done telemedicine using VSAT communication media. It was very effective.

During earthquake physicians were travelling from major cities to Kutch. They stayed there for sometime and than back to their home city. And than doing follow up by going there. The installation of telemedicine was very useful for follow up cases. The major cases were of orthopadics, neurology and stroke patient. All this can very well handled using telemedicine.

One can contact us for any information they may require for disaster telemedicine. We will try our best to provide it.

My email id: Falguni Patel - [e-mail].

For more information visit
www.medisofttelemedicine.com &
www.ehealthopinion.com

[CC-Conrad Clyburn-MedForeSight]

Thank you Falguni for sharing for sharing your first hand experience.

CC