WiRED International's mission is to provide medical and healthcare information, education and communications in developing and war-affected regions. We can connect doctors to doctors virtually anywhere. We also link grassroots communities directly to essential health information. WiRED’s information centers are locally run and become a central part of the communities they serve. Learn More >

 

 

 

 

 

WiRED Receives Grant from the Medtronic Foundation
by Kate Mayer

 

In January, WiRED International received a $50,000 grant from the Medtronic Foundation to support organizational elements of the International Telemedicine Network (ITN). The ITN is a consortium of 13 medical schools, teaching hospitals, research institutes, and non-profit organizations partnering to improve world health by providing medical education to healthcare communities in developing regions of the world. WiRED is the coordinating member of the ITN and responsible for fundraising.

 

The Medtronic grant and other funding will help the ITN set up the organization, develop programs and begin operation by way of field tests. These tests will most likely occur in Kenya and Uganda where several consortium members already have established relationships. The field tests will give the ITN a chance to analyze key operating elements over several months.

 

Simultaneously, the ITN will line up other host countries and, after receiving local buy-in, establish a detailed IT and medical content plan tailored to these first host countries. Conducting the tests in Kenya and Uganda will lay the groundwork for the ITN to move seamlessly into program delivery in other host countries.

 

Medtronic, an international medical technology corporation, has been a longtime supporter of WiRED’s work. The Medtronic Foundation, the philanthropic division of the corporation, gives grants aimed at improving the health of people and communities around the world. Past Medtronic grants supported WiRED’s work in the Balkans including Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, and Montenegro.

 

In September 2008, ITN consortium members met and agreed on the ITN's overall objectives, strategies, and operating procedures. This meeting was generously funded by 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.

 

WiRED is also pleased to announce a new member of the ITN, the ICDDR,B, which helped WiRED aid doctors in Kirkuk, Iraq in June. A leading international health research institute in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the ICDDR,B joins the ITN consortium as a medical content provider.

 

Editing by Annie Stuart, layout by Brian Colombe.

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