Operational Medicine Blog

OMI Co Director Dr. ALejandro Baez describes early response efforts on the Haiti Dominican border.

Dr. Amado Alejandro Baez,MD, MPH Co-Director of OMI is to lead Static Medical Support efforts for the International Haiti Summit in Punta Cana Dominican Republic. This high profile event will be attended by heads of state and specials guests from 55 different countries. Dr Baez will be coordinating “fixed point” medical security efforts collaboratively with Generals Henry Gomez Bueno and Francisco Araujo, who are charged with general event security and medical support for this special event.

The OMI HIT Rescue team continues to pursue programatic support for mobile disaster IT solutions.

from Toff Peabody and Ari Hoffman, San Francisco, CA

HIT Rescue continues to provide essential services on the ground in Fond Parisian, Haiti. Our Patient Tracking Software now provides robust, real-time census data on all patients in this field hospital. Vulnerable patient populations, including unaccompanied minors, amputee victims and pregnant women continue to be tracked and followed by specialized teams. 17% of this field hospital continues to be amputee victims.

Highlights of Patient Tracker Program
Besides tracking vulnerable populations, providers still have real-time access to patient x-rays directly on their mobile device. Assessments and Plans are recorded for each patient daily, and critical SPHERE data during the rainy season is tracked for each of the 278 patients currently at Fond Parisian.

Next Steps
OMI team members are currently interacting with tech partners to improve on the current patient tracker system that is deployed in the field. The end goal is to create a workable post-disaster program that can work in any environment.

Fundraising
OMI continues to fundraise for providing support in Haiti. Fundraising teams are holding diverse and creative events to help ensure that OMI can provide its essential services.

1. Maureen Richardson organized an event that raised over $1,000 at the gastro-pub The Republic in San Francisco. The event featured the OMI slideshow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYs8Qlbz_vk

2. Following up with the event he attended at The Republic, Jerry Richardson (Maureen’s father), has set up multiple meetings and has leveraged his personal contacts to continue the Richardson Family’s fundraising and organizational efforts for OMI. Jerry’s efforts have matched and exceeded the amount raised at the Republic event.

3. Nisha Thapa and the team from Sahayeta.org (check out their amazing work: http://www.sahayeta.org/), invited OMI to an amazing event at the Temple Bar in San Francisco to celebrate Nepali New Year. The Bay Area Nepali, Tibetan and Bhutanese communities came together to raise an impressive $3,000 at this event. These funds will enable OMI, to continue its efforts on-the-ground in Haiti.
- If you or your organization would like to hold an event to continue these amazing efforts please contact us, and as always you can donate online: http://opmedinstitute.org/haiti/

Academic Update
The OMI team, grounded in actionable, on the ground projects has begun its academic analysis of HIT Rescue and is preparing manuscripts for publication in the relevant medical journals to continue to share the lessons in using technology in a unique manner post-disaster. Our organization is committed to disseminating all of the information we have learned, and continues to strive to make the technology that we develop as Open Source as possible.
In this vein, the team continues to share its experience and get feedback at academic conferences. Most recently, Ari Hoffman attended the UCSF Association of the Clinical Faculty Meeting: “Aid and Relief for Global Disasters,” where the HIT Rescue project continued to receive supportive feedback.

The Operational Medicine Institute has no financial interest in any medical product. However, our expert staff is frequently asked to evaluate new devices and treatment strategies for operating in harsh environments. The following videos describe treatment strategies for controlling hemorrhage in dangerous and austere environments.

New iPhone interface for OMI HIT Rescue Project

OMI Continues Work in Haiti and Finds Support at Home

Over 8 weeks ago, members of the OMI team were on the ground in Haiti using their expertise to identify operational gaps in the budding relief effort in Haiti. OMI continues to have team members on the ground working on one of their major projects: HIT Rescue.

This pilot project, which started by tracking unaccompanied minors and amputees using an off-the-shelf iPhone application, has evolved tremendously. During the first phase of this pilot project, OMI teams surveyed the end users of this program: Surgeons, Team Leaders, Field Hospital Administrators, and members of the UN Subcluster, to identify the needs of physicians providing direct care in the field to those charged with tracking epidemiological data. The result is a truly home-grown product developed by Dr. Larry Nathanson and Charlie Johnson. Physicians can now view patient’s x-rays in the field, document their assessment and plan, track SPHERE data, create an on-the-fly hospital census, and of course carefully track vulnerable populations (such as unaccompanied minors) with the click of a button.

See how one of our Orthopedic Surgeons feels about the new HIT Rescue Product:

Academic Conferences and Collaboration

At home, previous on-the-ground teams are working feverishly to form collaborations with others who see the need for immediate solutions to patient tracking. At the Relief 2.0 conference at Stanford, Ari Hoffman and Toff Peabody were among other field workers to return and present their work in an attempt to share their ideas and make HIT Rescue a product that can not only be used effectively in Haiti, but also become a product that can organize providers after any disaster. The expertise and potential collaborations at this conference were amazing.

Yesterday, Toff Peabody spoke at the 12 annual UCSF Global Health Conference on the Health and Technology Panel. The Global Health community supports products like HIT Rescue and many participants shared their ideas for making this disaster response package better. This feedback will only make the next iteration of this program better.

Grassroots Fundraising

The OMI team is amazed and humbled by the unsolicited volunteers who will be holding fundraising events in the coming weeks for HIT Rescue. Maureen Richardson, Danny Cox, and Nisha Thapa are all planning fundraising events for OMI. These events range from organizing a club to donate their cover charge, to hosting a dinner party and requiring a $50 donation to OMI. It is fundraising efforts like these that keeps the OMI teams on the ground, and continues the innovation in HIT Rescue.

If you would like to hold an event for OMI, please contact our Director of Fundraising and let us know how we can help: klaidlaw@opmedinstitute.org

The OMI patient registration station in triage at Fond Parisien

The docking station with 15 donated iPhones!

04 MAR 2010

OMI Teams continue the dual mission of evaluating existing technological solutions to the growing problem of patient tracking in post earthquake Haiti while implementing real time patient care solutions. Our collaboration with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) continues to mature. HHI is an incredible group of professionals. The HHI- OMI collaboration brings together a truly unique combination of humanitarians, disaster response experts, IT specialists, clinicians and world citizens to address this complex humanitarian emergency.

The OMI vounteers continue to serve well beyond their time on the ground. Below is a slide show created by Toff Peabody and Ari Hoffman documenting some their efforts in Haiti.

In Fond Parisien, Dr. Scott Murray is assisting with the development and deployment of a technological solution to supply management. Scott is burning the midnight oil, caring for patients, maintaining the patient tracking system and now taking increasing responsibility for supply management. Frankly, it is an honor to work with such a group of motivated leaders and dedicated clinicians.

We appreciate the continued donations of money and of time. Without donated technical and programming support from people like Charlie Johnson (www.studymaker.com) and Larry Nathanson, the OMI projects would not be nearly as successful. And, the patients in Fond Parisien would not be receiving such quality care. Thank you to all of you involved.

Tomorrow, I head to Washington DC to meet with the Zuckerman Fellows and participate in their annual Fellow’s retreat. I look forward to discussing the great work that OMI and the Zuckermans are doing in Haiti and across the globe.

David Callaway
Co- Director, The OMI

A Haitian child flashes a smile

28 FEB 2010
Dr. David Callaway

“When it comes down to it, we are just looking to connect with other human beings. If you look deep down inside, this is what makes us human and brings us pure joy. This is why children who are missing limbs, are missing parents and speak different languages than us can still somehow relate and find smiles amidst this chaos.”

- Dr. Jennifer Callaway

As the rains flood Haiti and more lives are lost, it is important to maintain some degree of perspective on our lives. There is no reason that the disaster in Haiti cannot give us pause and motivate us to ponder our commitment to our own communities. Resilience is not built in the midst of disaster, it is cultivated over years.

There is no reward like that of a child's smile.

A smile that warms the heart

26 Feb 2010

OMI and HIT Rescue have had an exciting week.

On Wednesday, Elizabeth Cote, Katie Laidlaw and I met with the current class of Zuckerman Fellows. It was great to be back around such an incredibly talented group of young leaders. We gave a brief synopsis of OMI activities in Haiti and discussed the importance of building a network of trusted advisors and mentors. As usual, the questions were crisp and insightful.

One Fellow asked for advice on how to “do what you guys have done.” I hadn’t really ever thought that I was doing anything more than what I owed my community and my nation. I think Katie and Elizabeth shared that sentiment. I can’t presume to speak for these two, and I am sure this is a bite trite, but the basic advice I offered was:

1. Actively seek out and insist on mentorship
2. Do not take “no” for an answer
3. Do not miss an opportunity to act, you’ll always learn something

As usual, I learned far more from the Zuckerman Fellows than I offered to them.

Today also brought a great briefing with Larry Nathanson. This was Larry’s first disaster deployment. “I was pretty nervous,” he told me. “But now I can’t wait to get back.” Frankly, I have never seen Larry so excited. He was even talking about attending the HHI humanitarian course for physicians. Larry gave me a short demonstration of the new patient EMR and tracking system being used at Fond Parisien in conjunction with the iChart. The combination program addresses many of the tracking and reporting challenges we were noticing while still maximizing some of the architectural advantages of the iChart. Quite simply the system is unbelievable. In less than a week, Larry has created a basic system that allows physicians to track patients, flag high risk patients, load radiographs onto their iPhones, and generate custom reports. Needless to say, we are very excited about the next phases.

Though we appreciate the continued “atta boys” from the UN, you all can feel free to put the word out that it is time for the international community to fund this program. We plan to have short video and photos up by the end of the weekend- Larry has to catch up on his day job at BIDMC first.

On the West Coast, Toff and Ari presented at the Relief 2.0 Conference at Stanford. The response to the OMI iPhone medical record and patient tracking trials was overwhelming. There is a huge interest in this topic and a lot of very knowledgeable people. Hopefully, the OMI efforts will prompt some young programmer to come up with a stellar application, far beyond what we could have imagined. Regardless, we are seeing great opportunities for collaborative efforts towards socially responsible programming.

From a financial point of view, BIDMC has graciously offered to collaborate on funding and provide money management services to OMI. This offer will allow interested donors to earmark funds for OMI’s Haiti relief efforts when donating to BIDMC. We are hugely appreciative of this institutional support. With these partnerships, OMI is looking forward to strengthening its on the ground presence and improving its sustainability operations.

Ari entering data at night on the OMI HIT Rescue application

Injured Haitian woman praying at Fond Parisien (Courtesy of HHI photographer)

OMI Co Directors David Callaway and Alejandro Baez discuss operations in Jimani

The HIT Rescue Project has evolved from start up to maintenance mode. Though we are still fighting for funding, we have been fortunate enough to have Dr. Larry Nathanson from BIDMC join the team and travel to Fond Parisien (more on Dr. Nathanson). Dr. Nathanson is expanding the HIT Rescue Project, creating an effective patient database management system and supply tracking applications.

In the US, Toff Peabody and Ari Hoffman are at Stanford representing OMI at a conference on innovation in disaster response (Relief 2.0). This is an exciting opportunity for Toff, Ari and Carlos Levy to help shape the evolving disaster response in Haiti. We are excited to debrief after the meeting.

The OMI HIT Rescue Project is only one organization providing technology solutions to operational challenges. There are great projects going on around the globe. We have no financial interest in these groups- we just think that they are doing paradigm shifting work. If anyone has other resources, please email them to us- we are all about the mission.

Google

Ushahidi

Crisis Mappers

Multinational Response