Technology that saves children's lives

Computerworld - Frank Brady expects to celebrate a significant milestone in June: His Medical Missions for Children charity will treat its 30,000th child that month.

That's an impressive record for the nine-year-old nonprofit organization, which connects leading U.S. doctors with doctors and their pediatric patients all over the world.

MMC uses telecommunications technology and other IT tools to bridge gaps in knowledge, treatment and geography. The organization has created what it calls the Global Telemedicine & Teaching Network to enable U.S.-based doctors to consult with foreign pediatric physicians through a distance-medicine network called the Telemedicine Outreach Program so they can help diagnose and treat children worldwide. Technology also has allowed MMC to expand its services to include educational content for health care providers and patients in multiple countries.

"MMC fulfills a host of health- related needs throughout the world," says Alberto Salamanca, the Mexico-based president of MMC's Latin America region. "Technology has proven to be the most important tool to carry the mission and vision of MMC."

Computerworld named Medical Missions for Children the winner in the nonprofit organization category in its annual Honors Program recognizing technology innovation.

In some ways, Brady, 65, has spent his whole life readying himself for this mission. After he contracted spinal meningitis as a 1-year-old, the doctors told his parents that their son had only three weeks to live. But a week later, they suggested trying penicillin -- at the time, an experimental drug that hadn't been tested on pediatric patients.

The treatment worked, convincing Brady's mother that the boy was spared so he could do something special with his life.

Brady's path thereafter wasn't unusual. He spent most of his 35-year career working in international business.

But he didn't forget his mother's words.

"After raising a family and retiring [in 1997], those words that my mother said over and over again forced me to look for something special," Brady says, explaining that he and his wife, Peg, wanted to help families facing medical crises similar to his own.

MMC does just that. It allows participating hospitals in developing countries to contact medical specialists from U.S. hospitals to help diagnose and treat severely ill children. The consultation is done through teleconferencing, obviating the time and expense of travel.

Brady says there's a dire need for such services. One out of every three children who comes to MMC has been misdiagnosed, and 85% of the properly diagnosed patients need their treatments adjusted.

MMC's first case linked doctors at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Paterson, N.J., where MMC is based, to physicians in Panama treating an 8-year-old boy with a cranial deformity.

Brady used about $100,000 from his retirement savings to buy Polycom Inc. teleconferencing equipment, which included integrated diagnostic equipment in addition to a monitor, a camera and speakers, for the Hospital del Niño in Panama City. He also bought a Polycom setup for doctors at St. Joseph's.

Medical Missions for Children co-founders Frank and Peg Brady with Patrick, age 9 at the time of the photo, who has undergone numerous surgeries to remove a large tumor. Patrick lives in a small fishing village on the coast of Brazil.