Paterson is one of nation’s poorest communities. Nearly 90 percent of the households with children under 18 are headed by single mothers, and more than half of all the city’s resident families survive on an annual income of less than $14,800. Many of the children of these families don’t get appropriate medical care. Brady decided to start his work at home, hoping to prove the value of Medical Missions for Children’s “telemedicine” technology.

Put simply, telemedicine allows pediatric specialists to remotely examine, diagnose, and suggest treatments for critically ill children. Over the past 12 months alone, doctors at St. Joseph’s have conducted more than 475 telemedicine consultations for patients in the greater Paterson area. In addition, pediatric oncologists at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis use telemedicine to consult with doctors who are treating children with cancer in and around Paterson.

To date, the greatest use of telemedicine has been international – Medical Missions for Children has helped close to 25,000 children in 36 countries. State laws governing where doctors are licensed to practice have prevented its spread in the United States. As important as telemedicine is, it’s just one aspect of the work that Brady and his team have been doing.

Think Globally, Act Locally

Frank Brady created the Global Video Library of Medicine to provide access to the most current medical knowledge being disseminated by Medical Missions for Children’s network of hospitals, the National Institutes for Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 108 con- tent partners. The library provides physicians and allied health workers free unlimited access to video-based medical educational material. Brady says it is rapidly becoming the largest such collection in the world.

Launched the Medical Broadcasting Channel to broadcast live and

pre-recorded video medical education to the U.S. and global medical community. With an FCC-       licensed satellite broadcast facility, Brady and his team can now transmit new content and    programs from the library via broadcast satellite and Internet2. At St. Joseph’s, Medical Missions for Children has installed an “Intranet” that permits the transmission of Medical Broadcasting Channel content to the desktop of every health care and hospital administration professional throughout the 12-site network.

Developed a video-based education series to help educate health professionals on ways to reduce infant mortality among African Americans in the United States. This project is a cooperative venture with the Maternal/Child Health Consortium in New Jersey.

Established Giggles Children’s Theater to cheer up sick children stuck in hospital wards for long periods of time. The innovation: theater performances are live and broadcast on in-house hospital channels for children stuck in their beds. These programs are broadcast and can be used by in-house hospital channels everywhere. In addition, Medical Missions for Children is working with GE Healthcare to create educational health videos for schools in the greater Milwaukee area with

predominantly Hispanic students.

- From Wikipedia