VSee Brings Low Cost Telehealth Solution to BoP

Posted on May 7, 2013 by anne — No Comments ↓

VSee started as a simple desire to create a group video chat app that 1) didn’t drop calls and freeze video like Skype, that 2) protected privacy by not going through servers like Google Hangouts, and that 3) made collaboration extremely easy. The result was a simple low bandwidth video conference and fast screen share tool initially used only in niche circles like NASA and the Navy SEALs.

But the story doesn’t end there. It turns out VSee is also a favorite tool for social change and doing business with the billions represented by the BoP (Base of the Pyramid) model. It’s free group video chat uses a fraction of the bandwidth of Skype, Google Hangouts, Vidyo, and other video calling applications to get the same video quality and is amazingly easy for anyone to use. VSee has been especially appealing to those into global health care

Next Billion health care editor James Militzer shares his insights from an interview with Milton, VSee CEO:

“As soon as we launched the company, we noticed that we had a lot of activity in developing countries,” [Milton, VSee CEO] says. “Everybody there wants to use Skype, but because their bandwidth is not that great, they’re almost forced to use something else.”

Moreover, he noticed that many of VSee’s users were in the health care field. “Medical areas just started using this more and more, so we’ve been devoting more and more resources to telemedicine, combining VSee with some medical peripherals. We have projects in Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Haiti, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nepal – right now, half of our company revenue comes from telemedicine. And it’s pretty much been through word of mouth.”

Source: Next Billion – The Accidental Social Enterprise

VSee is even more practical now with the release of its 5-way video chat and screen share app for iPad (also the first FDA-registered and HIPAA-compliant video chat telehealth tool for iPad). With the price of medical devices dropping, holding a VSee telehealth consultation can be as inexpensive as hooking up a $400 ultrasound probe to a mobile device.

Read the entire Next Billion article here - how VSee aims to be the medical video chat for the world.

VSee, DLR, Grossman Burn Foundation, and Hollywood Special Effects Legend Team Up To Help Victims of Domestic Violence

Posted on December 28, 2012 by anne — No Comments ↓

In the developing world burns are common as most people cook over fires. Clothing catches on fire, hot oil gets spilled and lives are forever changed or often even lost.

Over the holidays our friend Randy Roberson from Disaster Logistics Relief (DLR) shared with us how VSee telemedicine has been making a difference for burn victims in Southeast Asia. Randy has been working with the renowned Grossman Burn Foundation to set up the first ever burn clinic of its kind in an undisclosed jungle region of that area. Unfortunately the satellite network they have been using is terrible and can’t even provide the bandwidth that most U.S. cell phones get, let alone the bandwidth needed for a typical telemedicine video link. VSee, he tells us, saved the day with its low bandwidth capabilities. It allowed them to set up a telemedicine connection like the one pictured below.

VSee telemedicine connects to Grossman Burn Center from Southeast Asia

With VSee telemedicine, they connected to one of two Grossman Burn Centers in California. From 8000 miles away, Dr. Grossman was able to get a clear view of the burns and direct on-site workers on how to treat the patients.

During this trip, VSee was also used to provide live coverage of their work with a young woman whose husband cut off her nose with a machete. The Grossman team fit her with a prosthetic nose created and donated by Alec Gilles, the special effects genius behind Hollywood blockbusters like Alien. They also took several molds and will be delivering a more custom fit prosthetic to her in a few more weeks.

This is just one of many cases the Grossman Burn Foundation is known for. Their restorative work with burn victims and victims of domestic violence include the amazing story of a 9-year-old girl from Afghanistan disfigured in a horrible accident and another young woman featured on the cover of Time magazine, whose husband had also cut off her nose.

The hospital they have partnered with in Southeast Asia includes an orphanage and also serves numerous trauma and chronic disease patients, including cases of malaria, dengue fever, tuberculosis, and leprosy.

We feel truly privileged and amazed that VSee can be part of something so special!

Grossman Burn Foundation patient with restored nose

patient pictured above with her new prosthetic nose, her daughter, and Grossman Burn Foundation team member Rebecca

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VSee in Gabon: Remote Ultrasound and the African Mother (Part 2)

Posted on November 29, 2012 by milton — 2 Comments ↓

maternity ward at Albert Schweitzer

In a previous blog post, Penny talked about the unique opportunity we had to travel to Gabon to deploy VSee telemedicine for the The Albert Schweitzer Hospital (HAS).

The hospital was the first one to be established in Gabon nearly 100 years ago and continues the work of its founder, Albert Schweitzer (for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952). It operates “on the front lines…against malaria, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and threats to maternal/child health,” and its Medical Research Unit is recognized as a leading institution in Africa seeking a malaria vaccination. It has an international staff and Board of African, European, and American partners.

HAS maternity building

inside the maternity wing

VSee Telemedicine

hospital satellite

Our job at HAS was three-fold:

1. to work with the hospital IT to bring more bandwidth into the hospital – including satellite, 3G, DSL (this month), microwave (July 2013), and fiber (early 2014)

2. to deploy VSee telemedicine systems including remote ultrasound

3. to shadow doctors and nurses in order to understand their work flow and operating environments so that video conference and telemedicine can be organically embedded into the new hospital they are building for their centennial celebration next year

VSee ultrasound kit

The metric of success would be a decrease in maternal and infant deaths. This goal was brought home to us on our very first day in Gabon when we were met with a woman’s death in the hospital. We worked with this in mind for the rest of the trip as we set up and trained the maternity ward staff to use the VSee telemedicine kit with an ultrasound probe. Their ultrasound machine had not been working properly for some time, so the nurses and midwives were ecstatic when we showed them how just a simple GlobalMed ultrasound probe connected to a laptop could do a live scan.

During the training, we used VSee to connect them with Dr. Steve Ralston, head of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, at Harvard’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Then one of the nurses did an ultrasound scan on a patient while being directed by him. This on-hands training with a doctor live from Harvard made them even more excited about the possibilities of providing world-class care and saving more lives in a challenging environment.

VSee’s low-bandwidth capacity and multiple video streams make it perfect for

receiving training on how to use the ultrasound probe
doing remote consultations with a doctor in Harvard (or anywhere in the U.S. or Europe and getting a second opinion on difficult cases

Here we are surrounded by about 10 enthusiastic nurses and midwives as we connected to the Head of Maternity at Harvard with VSee.

In the above 2 pictures, the midwife is doing an ultrasound scan on a patient as Dr. Ralston, asks her to show him the head and the heart. The smile on the mother’s face was priceless when she saw her baby’s heart beating =)

Acknowledgements

Our project would not be possible without the leadership and support of Dr. Lachlan Forrow (HAS President), Dr. Antoine Nziengui (HAS Director General), Bertrand Lell (HAS IT director), Ardile Bongo (HAS IT wizard), Marcelle Mortes (HAS head nurse), Daisy Duru (Albert Schweitzer Public Health Fellow and our hostess), Scott Johnson (MTNGS satellite wizard who traveled with us to Gabon) and companies MTN GS, GlobalMed, Interson, and MDLive.

You can also learn more about VSee telemedicine here.

Acknowledgements updated Nov. 30. 2012

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VSee in Gabon: The Albert Schweitzer Hospital and Surfing Hippos (Part 1)

Posted on November 28, 2012 by penny — No Comments ↓

I don’t of know of too many tech startups that would send you to Africa on a humanitarian trip, but I just got back from an amazing trip to the West African country of Gabon. It’s a small, beautiful country of about 5 1.5 million people located on the equator just north of Congo. We had been invited there by Dr. Lachlan Forrow, President of The Albert Schweitzer Hospital (HAS), to deploy VSee remote ultrasound for the hospital.

The Albert Schweitzer Hospital

Gabon map Founded in 1913 by Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer, HAS is historically the oldest hospital in Gabon. For many years it was also the only hospital. It took us about 4 hours to drive there from the capital city of Libreville, where our plane landed. HAS is located in the province of Lambaréné and sits on the bank of the Ogooué River in the middle of a tropical rain forest. Next year it will be celebrating its 100 year anniversary!

It turns out Gabon is one of the most stable and prosperous African countries. This is partly because of its small size and population and partly because it has had a stable and progressive government since 1960. In spite of this, the majority of people still live in poverty.

In Lambaréné where the hospital is located, there are about 60 villages, many of which are only accessible by boat, and most of which do not have electricity. The hospital reaches out to them with a program called PMI where the nurses go to a village one day a week to administer vaccinations to the children. Some of the villages may be as far away as an hour by boat. Even though PMI is only supposed to give vaccinations and even though many families have a small wooden boat that allows them to get to the hospital, many people who are sick or need medical attention will wait for the nurses to come to them. We were able to visit one of the villages about 10 minutes from the hospital.

Land of Surfing Hippos and Beach-Roaming Elephants

With an economy dependent on fluctuating oil prices, Gabon has been looking to diversify its economy. One very promising outlet is eco-tourism. The former president Bongo of Gabon set aside an unheard of 10% of the country to be protected as national parks, and Gabon has some stunning countryside worth preserving. According to Lonely Planet Gabon is a place of “endless white-sand beaches, primate-filled tropical rainforests, rolling savannahs and estuaries.”

In fact, Gabon has one of the last virgin rainforests that touch the ocean, so you can see things like hippos surfing in the ocean, elephants roaming the beach, and gorillas in the mist. We were able to take a boat tour along the river to see some of this beauty for ourselves. The tour took us through rainforest that stretched endlessly before us in complete tranquility. Truly, Gabon is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited – the Costa Rica of Africa.

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Vote For VSee in Haiti – ATA Telemedicine Video Contest

Posted on September 6, 2012 by anne — No Comments ↓

Support VSee and vote today for the “Expect Telemedicine” video featuring VSee at work in Haiti. Help move us into first place for the ATA Telemedicine Video Contest! Voting ends tomorrow, Friday, September 7.

VSee really makes telemedicine work in rural Haiti. It has provided healthcare to 10,000 to 20,000 Haitians who would otherwise not have access to doctors located in cities hours away. It also allows doctors to bypass infrastructure broken from the 2010 earthquake. You can also check out how VSee telemedicine was used for disaster relief in Haiti.

VSee is FDA registered for telemedicine. To learn more about how you can use VSee Telemedicine click here.

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photo credit: Life Paths

Simple Video Conference and Screen Share

Category Archives: Humanitarian

VSee, DLR, Grossman Burn Foundation, and Hollywood Special Effects Legend Team Up To Help Victims of Domestic Violence