Soon after Kate Mayer started her work with WiRED, we all learned that her 13-year-old son, Clayton, had biphenotypic leukemia, a particularly rare form of the disease.

Over the last seven years, an estimated one million Kenyans have had access to accurate information about HIV/AIDS and other critical health-related topics thanks to WiRED’s Community Health Information Centers (CHICs). As WiRED makes plans to refurbish and update five CHICs in this country, we reflect on our past work and goals for the future.

When Zgjim Limani, MD, a physician specializing in ear, nose and throat (ENT) medicine, and his colleagues wanted to put together an international medical symposium in Prishtina, Kosova, they asked if WiRED could help arrange a teleconference from the United States. Dr. Limani had worked with WiRED in the past and knew about the newly formed International Telemedicine Network (ITN).

The University of California, Berkeley, recently selected WiRED International as the School of Public Health’s 2009 Organizational Public Health Hero. Berkeley recognized WiRED for “its achievements in using information technology to provide up-to-date health education and medical information to individuals in developing, post-conflict, and isolated regions of the world.”

In January, WiRED International received a $50,000 grant from the Medtronic Foundation to support organizational elements of the International Telemedicine Network (ITN). The ITN is a consortium of 13 medical schools, teaching hospitals, research institutes, and non-profit organizations partnering to improve world health by providing medical education to healthcare communities in developing regions of the world.

During a two-day conference at the Medical City Center in Baghdad this week, several hundred Iraqi physicians and government officials met to discuss building a Center of Excellence (COE) for the study and practice of medicine. The main goal of the COE Medical and Public Health Unit is to increase medical and public health expertise in the Middle East.

WiRED International hosted a meeting at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC on September 25th, bringing together telemedicine experts from 12 leading medical, technology, and nonprofit organizations from across the country [see sidebar]. The consortium participants explored ways they could pool their skills, experience, and resources through an International Telemedicine Network (ITN) to deliver medical education and information systems to the poorest developing countries in the world.

Read Dr. Gary Selnow’s address to the Children’s National Medical Center ITN Organizational Meeting held on September 25, 2008.

Los Países Centroamericanos le Dan la Bienvenida a los Nuevos Centros WiRED

In a whirlwind three days in August, WiRED opened Medical Information Centers (MICs) in Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. Ribbon cutting ceremonies at the three new MIC openings brought out doctors, nurses, hospital administrators and many celebrants from the local communities.