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HELP International Telemedicine Humanitarian Emergency Mobile Medical Clinic Network
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
A telemedicine-based on-line community of physicians, financial donors and emergency personnel bringing advanced medical assistance to disaster zones and areas of chronic humanitarian need around the world.
Supporting organization:
Humanitarian Emergency Logistics & Preparedness (HELP)
URL:
http://www.disasterlogistics.org
City:
Payson
State/Region:
AZ
Country:
USA
Give and Take: Describe your project's top three needs
Type of expertise needed:
Technical Expertise To bring together a secure web-based network that can provide telemedical connection between physicians/hospital networks (ISDN & IP) to mobile medical clinics. In addition, also limited access for donors to see pre-scheduled live feeds from these clinics around the world (includes blogs, photos and live video). Additionally, we want to enable donors to designate what they wants funds allocated to and provide accountability documentation for them to see this was done, with nothing being deducted for operational overhead. 100% of what they give goes to the project and we want to prove it…CLEARLY.
Long story short. telemedicine plus complete transparent accountability to the donors all through one web site (obviously some aspects of this site will be very secure = medical/ HIPPA, etc).
Type of expertise needed:
Marketing/Media Expertise I just returned from the American Telemedicine Association conference in Nashville. We (HELP) are at the leading edge of international telemedicine. Many telemedicine resources from around the globe want to take part in this network. It can save many thousands of lives and greatly reduce suffering in some of the toughest places on earth.
This combined with what is unfortunately the very innovative concept of providing complete accountability to our donors, makes this (we believe) a very interesting news story.
Our focus is to find foundation, corporate and private support for modest operational overhead. Again, this will enable us to place 100% of funds collected during public appeals directly into the relief projects in the field. No big deductions for big salaries, private jets, or other phoophoo. Just getting the job right with no smoke and mirrors.
Additionally, my background was originally in broadcasting. Having been a news director and talk show host for a decade, I believe I know what it takes to be a good interview.
Type of expertise needed:
Management Expertise We need help with world class business management and networking to communicate our vision to fortune 500 corporations who can assist us with intellectual licencing, transporation and other overhead. We need to get our vision in the minds of leaders with forward thinking vision who know it is time to help support an organization that is doing the right things, the right way.
Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:
To bring advanced medical capabilities to disaster zones and areas of chronic disease and other urgent medical needs. In these areas medical staff are often over-worked or completely non-existent.
Telemedicine technology, combined with our disaster management database, advanced satellite communication capabilities and extensive logistics experience, we can offer medical professionals from around the world a guiding look over the shoulder of emergency responders in even the remotest regions of our planet thus providing them with life-saving guidance and assistance.
Think of this all as teleconferencing on steroids. A laptop, with cameras and medical peripheral devices (like digital stethoscopes, ultrasound, X-ray and much more) attached to the latest technology in advanced portable high speed satellite communications, communicating live with physicians and hospitals that are on the other side of the world.
Think of it as your favorite doctor - after he finished seeing you - logging on and helping victims of starvation in Bangladesh or HIV/AIDS in Africa or the tsunami in Asia. That is what we are currently doing and WE REALLY NEED MORE HELP SO WE CAN HELP THOSE IN NEED!
This is not a concept, we have already proven the effectiveness and now need help to take it all to the next level. We do this as a non-profit so money and greed do not guide us in doing what is right.
Our more advanced current needs include assembling a secure network which meets all the HIPPA and other confidentiality needs, video and audio tele-conferencing, as well as advanced WIFI capabilities for emergency crews to have telemedical contact from remote laptops back to the main clinic container.
Sustainability (financial) model:
This will also become a significant tool for fundraising as we will provide donors with limited access to this network. In it they will be able to see – often real-time via the web - their money at work, their efforts making a difference (including live web casts from the disaster, blogs, reports and other updates).
We also intend to provide complete funding tracking mechanisms through the site that will enable a donor to see 100% of their donation going directly to the relief effort and - if the donor chooses to do so - how it was applied to the specific needs they wanted the donation designated for.
Likewise, with the significant medical institution and physician involvement, combined with the logistical resource this will provide to numerous relief agencies, other foundations and governmental entities, we believe the financial health of the program - once operational - will be significant.
Technology Vision:
One of the big challenges is making sure everyone (hospital networks, physicians and the public) can communicate on this platform.
Both ISDN and IP teleconference protocols need to be enabled so Polycom and Tandberg (two biggest teleconference medical platforms) can be used. The problem is those two companies don't play nice together. Thus we need another system that can talk to both. I met with Global Media (based in Scottsdale AZ) at the ATA conference earlier this week. They have a platform that could work. I'm not sure if they are just re-selling or if this is OEM they placed their logo on.
We need network building, blogs, etc. What ever works best is fine with me.
We need to keep in mind bandwidth requirements on teleconferencing as many times this will be done from remote locations with limited abilities.
We need satellite BGAN units (higher speed) and various broadband and wifi capabilities for use in various countries. While we have used the INMARSAT network, ideas of how to lower high sat costs would be great.
Potential obstacles:
Two obstacles.
- People and organizations who attempt to slow us down by trying to posture into position with their intent being to sell something, rather than meet a need. We are trying to save lives and help hurting people... nothing more and nothing less.
- In relief work, the public typically gives to the orphan or bleeding victim, but seldom hardware and personnel. We take the unusual approach of allowing them to place 100% of their donation where they want it.
YOUR ASSISTANCE in assembling this network is critical to making this a reality.
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Resource Needs:
- Emergency ground teams collaborating movement of supplies, personnel and data.
- Global Physician's network enables physicians to collaborate providing assistance to ground teams - and between themselves - to provide greater consensus on medical procedures.
- Donor network where contributors see their donation at work via the web. Blog and reports- without media slant - of what is really going on in the disaster zone. HELP's vision has always been to cover modest operating overhead by foundation and private support. When we appeal to the public for funding 100% goes to that project.
This just makes sense.
Key Milestones:
http://www.disasterlogistics.org
We will completely outfit 2 dozen of our Doc-In-A-Box Mobile Medical Clinic in a Container
with computers and satellite equipment, and then fill them up with donated medical supplies and equipment. These will then be deployed this year to remote regions around the world (India, Philippines and Africa and more). People who partner with us will have limited access (via the web) to these sites to see them operational.
These same type clinics - with additional collaboration efforts currently underway - will be assembled in various other countries and staged there for rapid deployment when a disaster hits. Numerous other entities have expressed interest in collaborating with us on this. The network infrastructure is a key element of this project and must be assembled quickly.
In our main headquarters in Arizona we will assemble the network servers (and associated software), tie it to the credentialing company that verifies physician credentials, install our disaster management database (currently housed on a server in Sri Lanka) install the web site that will facilitate the physician access and telemedicine patient database.
We will also go through the certification process to ensure we are completely HIPPA certified and ready to meet confidentiality requirements in the USA and beyond.
Test these systems with our ongoing telemedicine projects in India and make everything ready to respond to the next disaster wherever it happen.
Regardless of how simple as we have made this all sound,
this project can save countless lives in the next few years alone.
Project Summary:
Disaster Relief Telemedicine project that brings specialist physicians from around the world to a disaster scene (via satellite) to help with medical triage and emergency medicine.
These disaster scenes ALMOST ALWAYS HAVE ALL MEDICAL PERSONNEL COMPLETELY OVERWHELMED WITH FAR MORE NEED THAN THEY HAVE CAPABILITY.
You may have noticed the needs in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. What we see on a regular basis after disasters in many countries makes that look like a very minor disaster.
We work in these places. The needs are huge We need your help.
Now we are working - with the help of people around the world - to assemble a worldwide telemedicine disaster network that will save countless lives. We are a non-profit 501 (c)(3) humanitarian relief agency. Our goal is not to make money. We are just trying to save more lives and meet the needs of people in natural and man-made disasters. This tool will help us accomplish this with greatly enhanced global capability. Through our own projects and field tests we have proven telemedicine is a tremendously effective tool in humanitarian relief. Now we need your help to bring this all to the next level.
This is not a concept. Disaster relief is what we have been doing for years in many different countries. From the tsunami in Thailand and India, to earthquakes in Turkey and Colombia, floods in Mozambique and South Africa, the Kosovo War and Famine in Bangladesh, we have been there. We know what we're talking about. This technology really works at saving lives.
As we build the secured web-based database and teleconference network, we will be able to - through sublet service - credential physicians to ensure they all have the proper training prior to seeing any patient via telemedicine link.
We have a growing number of physicians in the USA and abroad who have expressed volunteer interest (they can do so without leaving their normal practice). Likewise, other NGOs (non-governmental organizations) have interest in seeing this network operational. We believe there are numerous funding sources to sustain this tool once we have a secured network operational.
Therein lies the key; an on-line community of donors, physicians and disaster specialists all mobilized globally to meet needs in even the most remote reaches of our world.
We are members of the American Telemedicine Association and on ATA’s Emergency Response and Preparedness SIG, so there are numerous telemedicine-trained hospitals and physicians aware of HELP’s program. This is a global cause. A small amount of technical support now will ensure this project saves lives for many years to come.
One of the single greatest global needs in disaster response, relief, redevelopment and preparedness endeavors is EASILY IMPLEMENTABLE ENHANCED COLLABORATION between various emergency responder agencies, commodity resource entities and funding source entities. This tool - provided openly to partnering agencies - will significantly fill that void that currently hampers humanitarian response in our world.
HELP also provides disaster preparedness consulting services to third world countries. Through this same ever-expanding network we intend to provide preparedness resource information materials to communities, This will not only assist them in taking a more proactive approach to disaster response, but will also help facilitate their membership in this network before a disaster ever strikes. Increased effectiveness and efficiency for emergency teams will be the result. Far more importantly, additional lives may be saved.
We need help right now to raise this up to a much higher level to meet an ever-increasing need. We will provide complete accountability to all partnering agencies and will open our books to provide exhaustive transparency to everyone involved.
Your vote right now will help us accomplish this life-saving project and bring it to the far corners of the world..
PLEASE HELP US HELP THEM?
Comments
support this project!
Good luck on your project! So many unfortunate people badly need this kind of services from people like you. I hope you will be able to push through this significant aide to humanity. I know a website aiming to help get funds for these useful projects /endeavors that touch lives in one way or another. You might find it interesting…Please visit www.micro-capital.com.
Cordially,
Rio
This is one of my top 7
This is one of my top 7 proposals. Good luck!
Thank You!
Thank you for the encouraging words. Spending as much time as we do in areas of significant humanitarian need around the world we sometimes feel others do not easily share our desperate desire to meet the needs which people face there.
Again, your encouragement here means a great deal to me, to the volunteers here at HELP and to those whom we strive to serve.
Thanks again!
Randy Roberson - Disaster Logistics
H.E.L.P.
rroberson@disasterlogistics.org
www.disasterlogistics.org
Great idea, but the
Great idea, but the principal problem in the third world is the access to telecommunications. A network technology which provide low cost access and support web2.0 services. Over the network layer you could deliver all web2.0 services (blogs, wikis, IMs) and education, health, microlending, business, etc.
My organization is working in the access layer and we are looking for partners to deliver services like the services offered by your project. Because of we are based in Peru I think we could collaborate.
http://microtelco.culturalibre.info/
HELP CAN NOT DEPEND ON URBAN INFRUSTRUCTURE IN DISASTERS
More importantly, a principal problem in any disaster (whether or not it is in the third world) is the lack of electrical power. With over a decade in disasters around the world, HELP has learned that after earthquakes and floods, not only do you loose power, but many of the types of communications mechanisms you are talking about are going to also be out of order (even if they have generator backup).
These same mechanisms are also some of the first offensive targets in a war. If I depended on them, more people would go without aid and/or die. I have witnessed this infrastructure breakdown many many times. Anyone who has worked in disasters knows you must plan on supplying your own resources.
As such, HELP relies principally on BGAN High Speed Satellite Uplink units that (through the INMARSAT satellite network) work virtually anywhere in the world. Everything is battery powered so we do not need to worry about power in a disaster. We use various types of charging for the batteries including solar, wind and peddle power. In fact my complete telemedicine communications package - which I use for initial response in disasters - is all carried on my back. With the up and down bandwidth of about 450k, our equipment works great.
Where there is Wifi or broadband support, we would certainly use it (and I'd like to talk more with you about that because it could save us a great deal of money) however, as a consultant of disaster preparedness resources to third world governments, it would be foolish for me to overlook a prime preparedness issue and that issue is being certain that I can operate our programs effectively without regard to whether or not local infrastructure has been damaged. This is regardless of whether you’re in Darfur or Dallas, Maputo or Minneapolis, Arequipa or Arizona.
Thank you for your suggestion however. I would like to talk more with you about what your organization is doing with regard to services you mentioned and especially about your needs in Peru.
Randy Roberson - Disaster Logistics
H.E.L.P.
rroberson@disasterlogistics.org
www.disasterlogistics.org
I like this project...
...and I like that it was developed 30 miles from where I grew up in rural Arizona!
I do wonder if you could target your resources-needed section a little more specifically. It's clear you could use many types of support and equipment. But how do you see that need fitting in with NetSquared's specific niche? What benefits do you see (if any) from collaboration on social-networking and community-building initiatives that many Net2 folks are working on?
Your project and the need are clearly compelling, but I think a slightly refined proposal will be a stronger candidate. Good luck!
--ivan (quixotic1.com/Genocide Intervention Network)
Thanks for the review
Thank you for your suggestion. I sometimes struggle with these word count limitations as it often takes me 150 words just to greet someone. In being concerned about that I overlooked the obvious. Your point was well received and I have amended that section of the proposal.
Please keep the comments coming!
Randy Roberson - Disaster Logistics
H.E.L.P.
rroberson@disasterlogistics.org
www.disasterlogistics.org
By the way...
By the way... in what direction 30 miles from Payson did you live?
Randy Roberson - Disaster Logistics
H.E.L.P.
rroberson@disasterlogistics.org
www.disasterlogistics.org
The Verde Valley :)
The Verde Valley :)
Camp Verde to Darfur
Was just through there recently on my way to meetings in Sedona. Lots of changes recently. Highway 260 (General Crook Trail) is now 4 lane throughout much of the valley (uptown stuff!).
I've been in Payson for 25 years (born and raised in Phoenix) but as you can tell do quite a bit of traveling. I looked at your site and registered. We need to talk (Here probably doesn't make sense) as I am planning projects in Darfur for this year.
Randy Roberson - Disaster Logistics
H.E.L.P.
rroberson@disasterlogistics.org
www.disasterlogistics.org