MDNG Board Member Enoch Choi, MD, and Colleagues Headed to Haiti

Contact: Bill Schu

Phone: (609) 716-7777

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MDNG Board Member Enoch Choi, MD, and Colleagues Headed to Haiti to Assist in the Disaster Relief and Recovery Efforts

Choi’s group will depart on February 15 and will provide medical care at a clinic in the Dominican Republic. Dr. Choi and others will also provide live updates and reports about their experiences.

Plainsboro, NJ (February 5, 2010) — Enoch Choi, MD, and a group of physicians from the San Francisco area will soon depart for Haiti, bringing much-needed medical supplies and equipment. Choi and his colleagues will be joining other physicians from around the world who have donated their time to provide medical aid as part of the disaster recovery efforts following the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12.

Choi’s group’s efforts will be unique in that they will coordinate care using TeleHelp.org’s Doc-In-A-Box, a shipping container turned into a clinic that features a variety of advanced information technology and telehealth tools. The set-up is equipped to send diagnostic images live to USA-based physicians who will provide remote telemedicine diagnosis and consultations to assist in treatment even after all US physician volunteers leave Haiti, enabling an ongoing relief effort to be manned by indigenous Haitians.

Dr. Choi is a full-time family medicine physician who also practices urgent care as a partner at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in Palo Alto, CA. He will be blogging at www.hcplive.com/primary-care/blogs/c_haiti_earthquake in the days leading up to his departure.

“Seeing the overwhelming need called back my personal memories of how helpful independent short-term medical teams were after Katrina when welcomed by survivors in local faith-based organizations and responding to their stated needs in comparison to the lumbering inertia preventing large NGOs from responding,” said Dr. Choi. “Thanks to the support of my home church, ALCF.net, and generous local donors such as the Palo Alto Menlo Park Parents Club, we are well equipped to go help. We are being asked to come by the Haiti Foursquare Gospel Church, with logistics by TeleHelp.org and Jordan International Aid, and supplied by PAMF, MedShare, AmeriCares, and Blessings International.”

Also joining the group is Jan Gurley, MD, a board-certified internist physician who practices in San Francisco. She has also been blogging at www.docgurley.com about her preparations for the trip and her thoughts about what she expects to do while she is in Haiti.

“I signed onto the Haiti trip because of the unspeakable degree of human suffering there%u2011%u2011a level that’s been unheard of in our lifetimes,” said Dr. Gurley. “I have some small past experience working at the Schweitzer clinic in Gabon, West Africa, and I am somewhat functional speaking French in a medical setting. I feel that I am lucky in being able to go and do some small part to lend a hand%u2011%u2011something that we all wish we could do.”

While the group is in Haiti, Drs. Choi and Gurley will participate in live video chats each day while they are in Haiti, coordinated through Intellisphere’s HCPLive. Additional information about chat times and instructions for submitting questions to the physicians in Haiti will be forthcoming once the team arrives and can assess the situation on the ground. Visit www.hcplive.com/haiti_earthquake for the latest news and information.

“We know from experience that physicians are always eager to help when tragedy strikes, but often there are logistical hurdles that make providing such help difficult,” said Bill Schu, Group Editorial Director for Intellisphere. “Through our Haiti coverage, we’re hoping our physician readers can benefit from what Dr. Choi and his colleagues have learned about preparing for disaster response. We are also hopeful that the experience of the medical team will demonstrate the amazing things possible when medicine harnesses the full power of technology.”

For more information, contact Bill Schu, Group Editorial Director, at bschu@mdng.com or call 609-716-7777.

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MDNG

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publications and custom publishing products connect more than 200,000 physicians and specialists to current and emerging healthcare technology trends, hundreds of online tools and resources, and the latest breakthroughs that affect their medical practice.

Published in seven editions (including titles for pain management specialists and hospitalists), the series of publications explores the application of in modern practice; the use of social media tools and other online resources to promote physician%u2011physician and physician%u2011patient communication; and the ways in which new technology applications can be adapted to help physicians deliver better care and improve productivity and efficiency in their professional and personal lives.For more information, visit our website at www.hcplive.com.

About Intellisphere

Intellisphere is a leading provider of healthcare publishing, research, information, and education for the medical industry. Operating within both traditional and digital mediachannels that support the dissemination of content on healthcare technology and clinical research, our company serves the needs of hundreds of thousandsof general practitioners, specialists, nurses, pharmacists, and managed care professionalsthrough an extensive suite of magazines, journals, e-mail databases, websites, events, and personal meetings.

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