Telemedicine To Have A Role In Haiti

Posted on | February 18, 2010 | Comments Off on Telemedicine To Have A Role In Haiti

I wanted to update you on our mission and our anticipated date of deployment of tomorrow, 11 February 2010. Perhaps the most exciting news is that our telemedicine / tele-behavioral health mission has been elevated to the level of White House interest.
The National Operations Center of the …US Department of Homeland Security (NOC-DHS) has been tasked with providing us data communications support through the NCC/NCCIC. As a result, e are working closely with the main Haitian telecom company to support their efforts to network hospitals, clinic, and communities.
Hopital Adventiste d’Haiti – (GPS coordinates: 18.529584, -72.382629) and Centre Hospitalier du Sacre-Cœur (CDTI) – (GPS coordinates: 18.5376, -72.331238) will be our bases of operations . Once on the ground, we will provide supplemental medical care and telemedicine consultation at Adventiste & CDTI while our two person assessment team evaluates four other Port-au-Prince hospitals identified by our NGO partners. The goal is to determine which hospitals are appropriate for augmentation with telemedicine and then create a network of hospitals linked by the telemedicine bridge to five US-based tertiary care centers and a network of 250+ specialists spanning 56+ ABMS medical/surgical specialties. Once these hospitals in Haiti are linked to each other and to the US hospitals, our assessment team will evaluate five medical clinic sites – four in Port-au-Prince and one at the site of the new evacuation center at Chambrun, Haiti. By March 19, we anticipate having the five hospitals and five clinics in Haiti, including Chambrun, networked together through the telemedicine bridge. This will form the backbone of a new medical infrastructure for Haiti that will link Haitian medical care to the industrial world.
I should be wheels up from Miami and en route to Haiti at 11:45am Eastern.
My email and voicemail will be monitored for me during my absence and forwarded to me should you need to reach me for any reason.
Please pass this to friends and family so that they know where I am and that I will be out of direct touch for a while.
I will keep you informed of our progress through our website (http://www.facebook.com/l/90e3f;www.high-alert.com) and our company’s blog (http://www.facebook.com/l/90e3f;www.disaster-blog.com), as well as emailing when I can.
Allison
Allison A. Sakara, RN, MSN, CRNPPartner / President – High Alert InternationalTelemedicine Section Chief – Haiti 2010 Earthquake Telemedicine / Disaster Behavioral Health Operation