A sign that Haitian medical relief has turned from ’emergency’ to the ‘continuing crisis’ of caring for hundreds of thousands (millions?) of Haitian post-acute patients and the chronically ill: five companies–one a wireless provider–are partnering in donating equipment and organizing them into a system. The five are Advanced Warning Systems (disease management services), whose CEO Miles Moore took the initiative in organizing the group; MedApps (mobile wireless health monitoring) [URL “http://www.medapps.com” is reported by Google to be compromised by malware, 16 March 2015]; A&D Engineering (wireless scales, blood pressure monitors, stethoscopes); Nonin (portable pulse oximeters); and Digicel (major Caribbean wireless provider providing the connectivity). This program will be implemented after rescue and recovery has been completed and long-term relief providing ongoing medical services and support, can start. Also key to this is getting Haiti’s wireless network running reliably beyond the current provisional patchwork. They are working through American Red Cross International Services which presumably will coordinate readiness of health providers ‘on the ground’ and the Haitian Government. These five companies–none of them ‘giants’–should be commended for taking the initiative and for their generosity. It is also a real world test, just a few hundred miles away from the US, that remote monitoring can advance healthcare in less developed countries. Release.
[Editor’s note: With Haiti’s minimal and largely corrupt, dys/nonfunctional infrastructure in ruins, is this an opportunity to re-imagine Haiti as a high-tech center? Steven van Zandt the E Street musician seems to think so and is calling on Jobs, Brin, Dell etc. to design a new Haiti in this Politico article. Certainly Haiti now bears many similarities to Germany ‘Year Zero’ 1945 or Panama only 25 years ago. What do you think? –Donna] [That last article is very interesting. I’ve just ‘digged’ it. So, don’t bother to re-establish a wired telecoms infrastructure, but go wireless and give everyone mobile devices and the means to charge them… then stat building a wireless-based health and care system for the whole country. It could be done if there were a will. – Steve]