Medical Missions For Children Partners with U.S. Department of Defense's
PIMS Program to Extend Global Telemedicine Network
Non-Profit Organization and Partnership for Peace Program to Bring Healthcare to Children in Underserved Countries; Harnesses Interactive Video Communications to Obtain Broader Reach
PATERSON, N.J. June 12, 2002 - Medical Missions for Children, a non-profit organization featuring a Global Telemedicine and Teaching Network that enables children's hospitals outside the United States to consult with U.S. hospitals and medical specialists to help catastrophically ill children, and the U.S. Department of Defense's Partnership for Peace (PfP) Information Management Systems Program (PIMS), today announced a strategic partnership designed to supply interactive medical education and telemedicine consultations by working with and through the U.S. military.
In addition to providing medical care to critically ill children, the partnership agreement between the organizations will focus on training, education, and familiarization of medical procedures, philosophies, and equipment in PfP partner countries' hospitals. The agreement calls for the establishment of a multi-site virtual telemedicine video and data network to be used for bio-terrorism and disaster relief programs. In addition, existing networks will be used by Medical Missions for Children to present educational material on landmine detection and removal, treatment of landmine related injuries and trauma, and the ability to mentor difficult surgeries. The video and data network will be capable of transferring patient records including x-rays, CT scans, and images to a U.S.-based hub for distribution to participating U.S. physicians.
Additionally, the program will use commercial satellites leased by the U.S. Department of Defense for communication within each targeted country and will harness interactive video communications systems from Polycom, Inc., the leading provider of both appliance-based and PC-based video communications systems.
"The opportunity to partner with a well-established and successful program such as the Department of Defense's Partnership for Peace Information Management Systems Program will vastly extend the reach and capabilities of Medical Missions for Children," said Frank Brady, chairman of Medical Missions for Children. "During our initial pilot program with PfP, we are focused on extending care to the Republic of Georgia and Uzbekistan. Following the pilot program, we plan to extend the reach of Medical Missions for Children to several other countries including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan, Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Macedonia, and Romania."
The Medical Missions for Children Global Telemedicine and Teaching Network is made possible through a group of volunteer physicians and hospitals in the U.S. and partners including the United Nations, The Brody School of Medicine, the United States Agency for International Development, the World Bank, and Polycom.
"Establishing and maintaining key corporate, non-profit, and public sector partnerships is critical to the long-term success of Medical Missions," said Brady. "Our recent partnership with Polycom provides us with the audio, video and data conferencing technology required and is a great example of how non-profit organizations and the public sector and help people around the world."
"PIMS is excited to be collaborating with Medical Missions for Children. It is our hope that such a partnership will provide the impetus for the enhancement of civil-military medical partnerships within the Central Asian and Caucasian regions to ensure that effective medical training is available for casualties related to humanitarian demining, peace support operations, and disaster relief," remarks Rita Purcell-Robertson, PhD, Lead Consultant for the PIMS Medical Readiness Project. "PIMS continues to support U.S. Department of Defense goals to further focused security cooperation objectives to improve international medical readiness and facilitate collaborative database and curricula development. The program is working to establish a synergistic network of subject matter experts through 'public, private, and academic' teaming that will satisfy transformation of military education and training priorities, and benefit general public health issues. PIMS anticipates that this relationship will open the door to other U.S. and international experts working in medical informatics and related technologies."
About Medical Missions for Children
Medical Missions for Children (MMC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to elevating the care of catastrophically ill children in underserved U.S. and international communities. MMC created and manages its programs through the organization's Global Telemedicine and Teaching Network™ (GTTN) - an interactive, satellite and Internet-based communications platform. The Global Telemedicine & Teaching Network supports the real-time treatment of remote, critically ill children, and through a fully FCC licensed broadcast station, WMMC, broadcasts worldwide an extensive program of continuing medical education. Medical Missions for Children is headquartered at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Paterson, NJ. Visit for additional information.
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