UPLIFT International and its partner the University of Vermont (UVM) College of Medicine/Fletcher Allen Health Care demonstrated the capabilities of telemedicine, from observing open heart surgery and directly viewing gastrointestinal endoscopy and ultrasound examinations, to carrying out real-time long distance physician consultations and patient examinations.

The demonstration linked UVM and Fletcher Allen, its allied health care system, with Canton-Potsdam Hospital in northern New York and the other participating sites in Hanoi, Vietnam and Washington, D.C. Donors, media and other interested parties were invited to attend at demo sites in Burlington, Vermont, Washington, D.C., and Hanoi, Vietnam. The first Global ISDN link into Vietnam was accomplished recently by MCI WorldCom, thus enabling the telemedicine initiative.

"We’re extremely pleased with this demonstration of our telemedicine program," said Mark Schlansky, a Boeing executive who co-founded and is chairman of UPLIFT International. "We want to use telemedicine as a tool for medical education and cooperation between the U.S. and Vietnamese medical communities. We believe you must invest in people first and make long-term commitments. Telemedicine is a major component of UPLIFT’s long-term commitment to medical education and health care in Vietnam."

Schlansky and Michael Ricci, M.D., clinical director of the UVM/Fletcher Allen Telemedicine Program, in Vietnam, hosted the one-hour telemedicine demo. This demonstration is the beginning of a long-term Telemedicine Program that will link three hospitals in Hanoi and Hanoi Medical College with the UVM College of Medicine/Fletcher Allen Health Care and The George Washington University Medical Center (GWUMC). Additional medical schools and institutions in the U.S. and Vietnam will be added as the program evolves. The Telemedicine Program is supported by Vietnam's Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications.

"This effort is a logical extension of our telemedicine program," said John Evans, Ph.D., executive dean of UVM College of Medicine and Fletcher Allen Health Care. "We designed our system to serve, teach and learn from people of our region by linking physicians and patients across some of the nation’s most rural and rugged territory. Now we see an opportunity to serve, teach and learn from the people of Vietnam by extending our expertise across the globe." The UVM/Fletcher Allen approach to telemedicine has earned the system recognition as one of the nation's top ten telemedicine programs by Telemedicine and Telehealth Networks Magazine two years in a row. Vermont was among the first states to explore methods of providing health care at a distance, building its first telemedicine system in 1968.

UPLIFT International and its affiliated medical schools, UVM/Fletcher Allen and the GWUMC/School of Medicine, are developing cooperative long-term medical education programs in Vietnam. "As an academic health center, we are privileged to work with our Vietnamese colleagues to address the important health care issues, including those associated with infectious diseases, and to help improve the overall quality of health of the citizens of Vietnam," said Dr. Michael Seneff, Clinical Coordinator for International Medicine and Director of the Intensive Care Unit at GWUMC.

The purpose of the medical education program is to modernize medical education in Vietnam, to expose American medical students and physicians to conditions not often encountered in the U.S. to enhance their education and training, to allow Vietnamese medical students and physicians to participate in more cutting-edge training and technology, and to build long-term relationships with health care professionals around the world. On this trip, George Washington University School of Medicine and the University of Vermont College of Medicine will also travel to Hue, Vietnam with UPLIFT International to begin a long-term medical education program with Hue Medical College.

Eventually, the medical education program will expand to include exchanges of students and doctors from both countries. Another component of the program will be the development of an infectious diseases program that includes Tuberculosis. Telemedicine will be a critical component of this program.

MCI WorldCom has joined the effort by providing ISDN connectivity for the demonstration. MCI WorldCom's Global ISDN Service leads the market with switched bandwidth on demand to over 65 countries around the world in Europe, the Pacific, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East. It combines MCI WorldCom's advanced network capabilities and international connections for applications such as videoconferencing, distance learning, batch data transfer, remote printing, multimedia and LAN/WAN connectivity. MCI WorldCom is a global telecommunications company with revenue of more than $30 billion and established operations in more than 65 countries encompassing the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions.

This is the second major initiative UPLIFT International has undertaken in Asian during the last three months. On September 11, 1998 UPLIFT International accomplished its goal of aiding the people of Indonesia during the current economic and health care crisis, when a Federal Express DC-10 filled with 30 tons of medicines and medical supplies landed in Jakarta. The wholesale value of this shipment was $1.74 million. These medicines and supplies were donated to four public hospitals in regions throughout Indonesia to be used, without charge, for needy patients. Additional airlifts to Indonesia are planned for 1999.