Medical Missions for Children (NJ)

Our Mission

Medical Missions for Children is dedicated to serving the medical needs of catastrophically ill children in underserved U.S. and international communities. Through the use of its Global Telemedicine and Teaching Network, a satellite and Internet-based communications platform, Medical Missions for Children facilitates the real-time treatment of remote, critically ill children, broadcasts an extensive program of continuing medical education, and supports dialogue exchange among a global network of medical specialists. The organization's goals are designed to help catastrophically ill children by raising the level of medical expertise in local hospitals in underserved areas through medical education for physicians, nurses, and hospital administrators and through the use of live, two-way diagnostic and treatment consultations between specialists based at major U.S. medical centers and physicians in the local hospital. Typically, Medical Missions for Children facilitates the treatment of 1,500 children each month.

Medical Missions for Children's global network encompasses pediatric healthcare facilities in Latin America, Africa, India, and Eastern Europe, and the volunteer services of more than 22 tier-one U.S.-based and four international medical institutions. Medical Missions for Children also partners with the United Nations and the World Bank, serving as the exclusive content provider for its Global Development & Learning Network (delivered to universities, medical schools, and the World Bank's own Learning Centers).

Medical Missions for Children's medical activities are carried out daily through the Global Telemedicine & Teaching Network(GTTN). The GTTN enables the pairing of physicians located at one or more of Medical Missions for Children's mentor medical centers with attending physicians located at its recipient hospitals. This relationship, established in a video-teleconference format, allows for the collaborative examination, diagnosis, and treatment of a child or pregnant woman in a real-time setting, resulting in a more comprehensive evaluation and accelerated treatment of a myriad of illnesses and physical conditions.

Medical Missions for Children also addresses developing countries' pediatric and maternal healthcare concerns through the implementation of a multi-disciplinary medical education program. Tapping into the expertise of its volunteer medical centers, leading medical associations, and the National Institutes of Health, Medical Missions for Children manages and broadcasts a world-class digital library of medical education materials, including live and pre-recorded lectures, symposia, grand rounds, and research seminars.

Medical Missions for Children, in partnership with St. Joseph's Children's Hospital, a 120-bed hospital in inner-city Paterson, New Jersey, manages a unique healing experience for its young patients. Giggles Theater, a 70-seat theater also able to accommodate children in wheelchairs and beds, and located within St. Joseph's Children's Hospital, brings local and regional performing artists directly to pediatric patients, through weekly performances and hands-on activities. Music, drama, puppetry, dance, storytellers, and live, interactive "video field trips" break the monotony and bring brightness to these sick children. Performances take place for both a live audience, and for non-ambulatory patients, broadcast via the hospital's closed circuit television system. Since the theater features the latest telecommunications technology Medical Missions for Children and St. Joseph's Children's Hospital transmit around the world to children's hospitals in developing countries.