WiRED Organizes Meeting of Telemedicine Experts to
Discuss New Collaboration
by Annie Stuart

WiRED International hosted a meeting at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC on September 25th, bringing together telemedicine experts from 12 leading medical, technology, and nonprofit organizations from across the country [see sidebar]. The consortium participants explored ways they could pool their skills, experience, and resources through an International Telemedicine Network (ITN) to deliver medical education and information systems to the poorest developing countries in the world.

"Sadly, those regions of poverty, isolation, and conflict also suffer the greatest need for medical knowledge," said WiRED's Executive Director, Gary Selnow, Ph.D. in his address to the consortium. "This is where we propose to focus the efforts of the International Telemedicine Network—on the countries in greatest need—where delivering services is most difficult."

The ITN Plan

Coordinating with local healthcare officials and medical educators, an ITN advance team will determine the content and infrastructure needs in each country. This team will then recommend to the full consortium a package of programs and services best suited to addressing the local medical education needs of the recipient country. The ITN will also provide rapid response programs for epidemics and medical emergencies (for example, see the cholera program for Kirkuk).

At the ITN meeting, WiRED board member, Robert S. Northrup, M.D., led a discussion of methods for delivering patient consultations and continuing medical education (CME) to countries in need. These included digital video lectures, Web-based medical libraries, live seminars, online tutorials, and indexed digital recordings. Lew Eigen, Ph.D., also a WiRED board member, outlined possible funding sources. A discussion of program evaluation and outcomes assessment, critical elements in the ITN program, was led by William D. Crano, Ph.D. a professor of psychology at Claremont Graduate University.

Access to this medical information will be possible by a versatile information gateway, currently under development by partners at The MITRE Corporation, a not-for-profit organization chartered to work in the public interest. MITRE's Chris Sprito, who heads the information technology portion of the ITN, demonstrated gateway features to consortium members.

Benefits of the ITN Collaboration

With an expanded telemedicine infrastructure available in developing and war-affected regions, consortium participants envision a greatly improved quality of healthcare—achieved in less time and with lower costs than conventional education programs. Where medical communication is currently lacking, WiRED and its partners hope to provide a wide range of benefits—improving communications between clinicians and the medical education community, providing an interactive forum for medical professors and medical experts, assisting Ministries of Health to track emerging countrywide trends, and offering world-class medical e-libraries.

The meeting of the ITN Medical Consortium was made possible by a generous donation of Joseph E. Robert, Jr., chairman and CEO of J.E. Robert Companies (JER), one of the world's largest private commercial real estate investment and asset management firms. Robert is also founder and chairman of Fight for Children, a nonprofit that focuses on educational and health care initiatives for underprivileged children.

In his opening remarks, Robert underscored his belief in the ITN's potential to help forge valuable personal and professional relationships that can lead to strong international understanding and cooperation. "I believe in medical diplomacy as a way to build lasting relationships between nations and demonstrate one of America's finest traditions—its giving spirit and eagerness to share our wealth of knowledge, our talents, and our concern for others who have not been blessed as we have," he said.

Layout by Brian Colombe.

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