Medicine and War
ISSN: 0748-8009 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fmcs19
SatelLife: Partnerships in global communication for health Charles E. Clements MD, Executive Director To cite this article: Charles E. Clements MD, Executive Director (1990) SatelLife: Partnerships in global communication for health, Medicine and War, 6:1, 37-38, DOI: 10.1080/07488009008408896 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07488009008408896
Published online: 22 Oct 2007.
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Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=fmcs20 Download by: [Universite Laval]
Date: 06 November 2015, At: 17:29
IPPNW 9TH CONGRESS
SatelLife
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Partnerships in Global Communication for Health Dr CHARLES CLEMENTS, Executive Director of SatelLife, addressed the following open letter (here slightly abridged) dated 31 August 1989 to the International Councillors and friends of IPPNW For those who may be unfamiliar with IPPNW's newest endeavour, SatelLife is a non-profit organization providing communication systems to link medical centres and health providers throughout the world. SatelLife was first envisioned by Dr Bernard Lown, Co-President of IPPNW. At the 1985 World Congress, he articulated a vision in which satellites would be used to create a global community of health professionals linked by their desire to share medical knowledge. This view of an East-West collaboration to mitigate North-South disparities in health services was enthusiastically endorsed and led to a series of meetings with scientists and world health organizations. In 1989, SatelLife's newly formed international Board of Directors appointed me as the Executive Director. I am a public health physician with significant experience working in the developing world. Every week a quarter million children die in the developing world. Tens of thousands of these children could be saved if their parents or a village health worker had access to some basic information: information about simple remedies, information about hygiene, and information about nutrition. WHO, UNICEF, and UNESCO, along with the world's leading development agencies, agree that one of their most difficult questions is: How can these facts for life be communicated? SatelLife is answering that question. SatelLife's major operating system is called packet-satellite (pacsat). Pacsat is a combination of an established technology (radio transmission) and a new technology (the microcomputer). Its basic units are lap-sized computers connected to small radio transmitter/receivers. When a health provider in the field taps out a message on the computer, digitalized impulses are sent via radio waves to low-altitude orbiting satellites. The satellites, functioning as couriers, deliver the messages to alert ground stations anywhere in the world. In addition to pacsat, SatelLife develops and employs other reliable, lowcost telecommunication systems including tele-bridges, tele-conferences, MEDICINE AND WAR, VOL.6, 37-38 (1990)
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C. CLEMENTS
electronic mail, and slow-scan television. SatelLife provides communication equipment, training, and support in circumstances where health care providers are isolated from critical sources of medical information. SatelLife will: link rural health workers with clinics and/or medical centres so semi-skilled practitioners can have consultation with physicians; provide communications during natural disasters for effectively co-ordinating relief efforts;
Downloaded by [Universite Laval] at 17:29 06 November 2015
make library resources and data bases readily available to all doctors and health practitioners; facilitate tele-bridging so people in remote areas can participate in medical symposia, meetings or live conferences in urban centres; make it possible for institutions and agencies to share successful public health programmes (on such topics as AIDS, immunizations, alcohol and tobacco abuse) in North-South, East-West and South—South exchanges; gather data for surveillance and control of epidemic diseases; provide computer-based learning programs for field workers. Our accomplishments to date SatelLife has secured permission to use a new generation of packet satellites, to be launched late this year. We are currently seeking ideas and appropriate sites for demonstration projects in the Third World during 1990. SatelLife's chairman, technical consultant, and I have met with the leadership of the Soviet Space Institute (planning launch agreements) as well as with the leadership of the UoSat Spacecraft Engineering Research Unit in Great Britain (for design and manufacture agreements). We plan to launch a packet satellite designed to specification, and fully owned by SatelLife, in 1991. SatelLife has researched the technical feasibility of, and secured an agreement for, a library project with the British Medical Association. The project will use various satellite telecommunications to link the BMA library and research services with medical institutions and ministries of health in developing and socialist bloc countries. Journals and other critical resources will be made readily accessible. Correspondence: Charles Clements MD, Executive Director, SatelLife, 225 Fifth Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
ISSN: 0748-8009 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fmcs19
SatelLife: Partnerships in global communication for health Charles E. Clements MD, Executive Director To cite this article: Charles E. Clements MD, Executive Director (1990) SatelLife: Partnerships in global communication for health, Medicine and War, 6:1, 37-38, DOI: 10.1080/07488009008408896 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07488009008408896
Published online: 22 Oct 2007.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 3
View related articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=fmcs20 Download by: [Universite Laval]
Date: 06 November 2015, At: 17:29
IPPNW 9TH CONGRESS
SatelLife
Downloaded by [Universite Laval] at 17:29 06 November 2015
Partnerships in Global Communication for Health Dr CHARLES CLEMENTS, Executive Director of SatelLife, addressed the following open letter (here slightly abridged) dated 31 August 1989 to the International Councillors and friends of IPPNW For those who may be unfamiliar with IPPNW's newest endeavour, SatelLife is a non-profit organization providing communication systems to link medical centres and health providers throughout the world. SatelLife was first envisioned by Dr Bernard Lown, Co-President of IPPNW. At the 1985 World Congress, he articulated a vision in which satellites would be used to create a global community of health professionals linked by their desire to share medical knowledge. This view of an East-West collaboration to mitigate North-South disparities in health services was enthusiastically endorsed and led to a series of meetings with scientists and world health organizations. In 1989, SatelLife's newly formed international Board of Directors appointed me as the Executive Director. I am a public health physician with significant experience working in the developing world. Every week a quarter million children die in the developing world. Tens of thousands of these children could be saved if their parents or a village health worker had access to some basic information: information about simple remedies, information about hygiene, and information about nutrition. WHO, UNICEF, and UNESCO, along with the world's leading development agencies, agree that one of their most difficult questions is: How can these facts for life be communicated? SatelLife is answering that question. SatelLife's major operating system is called packet-satellite (pacsat). Pacsat is a combination of an established technology (radio transmission) and a new technology (the microcomputer). Its basic units are lap-sized computers connected to small radio transmitter/receivers. When a health provider in the field taps out a message on the computer, digitalized impulses are sent via radio waves to low-altitude orbiting satellites. The satellites, functioning as couriers, deliver the messages to alert ground stations anywhere in the world. In addition to pacsat, SatelLife develops and employs other reliable, lowcost telecommunication systems including tele-bridges, tele-conferences, MEDICINE AND WAR, VOL.6, 37-38 (1990)
38
C. CLEMENTS
electronic mail, and slow-scan television. SatelLife provides communication equipment, training, and support in circumstances where health care providers are isolated from critical sources of medical information. SatelLife will: link rural health workers with clinics and/or medical centres so semi-skilled practitioners can have consultation with physicians; provide communications during natural disasters for effectively co-ordinating relief efforts;
Downloaded by [Universite Laval] at 17:29 06 November 2015
make library resources and data bases readily available to all doctors and health practitioners; facilitate tele-bridging so people in remote areas can participate in medical symposia, meetings or live conferences in urban centres; make it possible for institutions and agencies to share successful public health programmes (on such topics as AIDS, immunizations, alcohol and tobacco abuse) in North-South, East-West and South—South exchanges; gather data for surveillance and control of epidemic diseases; provide computer-based learning programs for field workers. Our accomplishments to date SatelLife has secured permission to use a new generation of packet satellites, to be launched late this year. We are currently seeking ideas and appropriate sites for demonstration projects in the Third World during 1990. SatelLife's chairman, technical consultant, and I have met with the leadership of the Soviet Space Institute (planning launch agreements) as well as with the leadership of the UoSat Spacecraft Engineering Research Unit in Great Britain (for design and manufacture agreements). We plan to launch a packet satellite designed to specification, and fully owned by SatelLife, in 1991. SatelLife has researched the technical feasibility of, and secured an agreement for, a library project with the British Medical Association. The project will use various satellite telecommunications to link the BMA library and research services with medical institutions and ministries of health in developing and socialist bloc countries. Journals and other critical resources will be made readily accessible. Correspondence: Charles Clements MD, Executive Director, SatelLife, 225 Fifth Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
