When I first met Dr. Ron Dieckmann, I realized that we just HAD to work together on something despite the fact that our areas of interests are so divergent. His expertise is in pediatric EM and mine is in educational technology. Put these together and what do you get? Our new non-profit organization, KidsCareEverywhere. We just officially were granted a 501(c) non-profit status and are launching into major projects in the near future.
What is KidsCareEverywhere?
Our goal is to transform medical technologies in pediatric care for underserved countries. We help to educate and train medical personnel in using these technologies to benefit those who most need them -- children.
What are we working on?
As a budding organization built from a grass-roots approach, we are dealing with getting off the ground. We were lucky enough to gain the pro bono services of good-hearted professionals like Lian Ng who designed our logo and website: www.kidscareeverywhere.org. I'm constantly amazed by all the passionate individuals who want to help out.
Next month (August), we will be taking our first team of very enthusiastic KCE members to "train the trainers" in Vietnam. In Hanoi, we will be hosting a conference where we will teach Vietnamese pediatricians. We will conduct a pre-post analysis of the pediatricians' practical knowledge before and after installing and learning about the PEMSoft software. This software is a medical decision-support software, generously donated by the parent company. Additionally while there, we also will upload local Vietnam hospital documents into the customizable PEMSoft software to create a "Pemsoft Vietnam" package. These documents might include hospital policies, regional bacterial resistance patterns, phone numbers, etc.
How can you help?This week, we are looking towards finding individuals and companies who might help fund the purchase of 100 USB flash drives (1-2 GB) to load the PEMSoft software onto. These USB drives would be given to the conference participants so that they can upload copies of the software in their home hospitals and clinics, in addition to their own laptops.
If you know of anyone who might be able to help us out for a good cause, please let me know (michelle.lin@emergency.ucsf.edu).
Have a nice weekend everyone. Should be nice weather here in the Bay Area. I am typing this blog on a beautiful day before my shift starts from my office "deck". This self-photo is taken from my secret, private 2nd floor patio surrounded by 3 brick building walls, accessible only by climbing out my office window.
