Children’s Health Fund and Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Unveil New State-of the-Art Mobile Medical Unit

New “doctor’s office on wheels” will bring high tech mobile medical care to teens in need.

For Release: October 20, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Underserved adolescents from San Francisco to San Jose will be the recipients of the most technologically advanced mobile healthcare following today’s unveiling of a new Children’s Health Fund mobile medical unit. Known as the Teen Health Van, the “doctor’s office on wheels” will feature Samsung’s innovative technology and be operated in partnership with Stanford Medicine Children’s Health and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Through a generous grant from Samsung, the program will provide advanced mobile health care for uninsured and homeless adolescents and young adults through state-of-the-art technology to serve the unique needs of this vulnerable population. Children’s health has also been a focus of the Samsung Hope for Children initiative since 2002.

This is the latest in a national network fleet of mobile medical units developed by Children’s Health Fund which incorporates the use of mobile electronic health records now in use across the U.S. today.

“With so much incredible technology changing the way our world operates today, we owe every teen and child the benefit of these advancements,” said Dr. Irwin Redlener, president and co-founder of Children’s Health Fund. “Every child deserves the best possible chance at life, and these technological advances, courtesy of our wonderful partner Samsung, can turn these chances into true change.”

“We are so excited to see our technology being used to enhance medical care for children in need,” said Ann Woo, director of corporate citizenship at Samsung Electronics North America. “At Samsung, we strive to support organizations like Children’s Health Fund that share our passion for making a difference in children’s lives.”

The new Teen Health Van will increase access, convenience, continuity, and quality of care to meet the unique needs of this patient population. Each exam room will be equipped with flat-screen monitors and tablets loaded with interactive technology and health education resources. When used together, the medical provider will be able to illustrate symptoms, demonstrate treatments and discuss other health issues to better engage patients and improve outcomes.

One innovative way this technology is being used is through the act of mirroring. Mirroring is a tool for health education that is starting to help medical providers improve their communication with patients. Providers will have the ability to pull up an image on a tablet on which they can draw, to demonstrate a process in the body to educate the patient and parent. Conversely, patients will have the ability to draw on the tablet to explain to their provider symptoms which they may not otherwise be able to describe, helping their provider make a more informed diagnosis.

Founded in September 1995 and celebrating 20 years of providing care, the Teen Health Van is a longstanding partnership between Children’s Health Fund and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Seth Ammerman, MD, is the medical director for the program, which provides comprehensive services to at-risk, homeless, and uninsured patients ages 10-25 at seven locations from San Francisco to San Jose.

"I am very excited about our new mobile medical unit,” said Dr. Ammerman, who is also a clinical professor of pediatrics--adolescent medicine at Stanford. “This will allow us to continue to provide outstanding comprehensive primary health care services to the underserved youth we work with. Equipped with state-of-the-art health care technology,” he continued, “the new unit will enable us to take our care provision to the next level, so that our patients can be even more engaged in the program, and have the best health outcomes possible."

“The Teen Health Van plays a crucial role in our mission to provide extraordinary care for all Bay Area children, including teens and young adults who might otherwise not have access to comprehensive medical care,” adds Sherri Sager, Chief Government and Community Relations Officer for Stanford Medicine Children’s Health and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. “We are honored to partner with Children’s Health Fund and Samsung to bring even better care to the vulnerable youth we serve on the San Francisco Peninsula.”

Launched in 2014, the Samsung Innovation Center at Children’s Health Fund pairs Samsung’s technological expertise with Children’s Health Fund’s decades of experience in breaking down barriers to care to make health care more accessible for children in need.

Additional support for the program is generously provided by Morgan Stanley. Gravity Tank also provided generous in-kind guidance on how to best utilize the Samsung technology on the mobile medical unit.

Authors

Media Contacts:

Diane Iselin, Children’s Health Fund
(212) 535-9400
diselin@chfund.org

Danielle Cohen, Samsung Electronics North America
(212) 390-3811
d2.cohen@sea.samsung.com

Jennifer Yuan, Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health
(650) 799-6948
jennifer.yuan@lpfch.org

About Children’s Health Fund

Children’s Health Fund was created in in 1987 in response to an unacceptable situation. For thousands of kids packed into New York City’s homeless shelters, their chance for the future was dim. That inspired singer/songwriter Paul Simon and pediatrician/child advocate Irwin Redlener, MD, to do something life-changing for these children. Adequate medical care was an essential first step in helping them to be healthy and ready to learn, to have dreams and the hope of achieving them. Today, Children’s Health Fund has 50 mobile clinics, each a “doctor’s offices on wheels,” serving hundreds of locations across the country. And, over the past 26 years, the organization has grown to support almost 250,000 health care visits each year for disadvantaged children.  For more information, visit  childrenshealthfund.org.

About Samsung Electronics North America

Samsung Electronics North America (NAHQ), based in Ridgefield Park, NJ, is an arm of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. The company markets a broad range of award-winning consumer electronics, information systems, and home appliance products, as well as oversees all of Samsung’s North American brand management including Samsung Electronics America, Inc., Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC and Samsung Electronics Canada, Inc. As a result of its commitment to innovation and unique design, Samsung is one of the most decorated brands in the electronics industry. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com. You can also Fan Samsung on www.facebook.com/SamsungUSA or follow Samsung via Twitter.