ProntoForms delivers mobile workflow solutions to companies around the world, and occasionally we have the opportunity to contribute to a worthwhile cause on a pro bono basis.
For the past several months, we have been working with Surgicorps, a non-profit organization that asks medical professionals and supporting staff to volunteer their time and expertise in order to provide free surgical and medical care to people in need around the world.
A Surgicorps team typically sets up camp in a remote area of a developing country and, during an intense week or 10 days per trip, changes the lives of large groups of people who would otherwise never have access to life-altering surgery and medical care. The medical teams return to the same country year after year in order to offer follow-up care for patients, often children, who need care spanning over several years.
As noted by Scott Pearson, a Surgicorps volunteer, on the Surgicorps Blog:
“The adversity that some patients have to overcome is amazing. Some families have carried their children for days over mountains while sleeping at night without shelter just for the opportunity to be evaluated.”
In 2016, Surgicorps visited Bhutan, and over the next several months they will return to Mexico, Guatemala, Zambia, and Vietnam.
Each trip offers several logistical challenges for the team. Project Managers need to coordinate a complex mix of patient records, medical staff, examinations, procedures, medical equipment, and more, into an efficient and tight schedule.
Until recently, the patient registration process at each camp was managed using paper forms. Each trip can see up to 160 applicants, but the Surgicorps team can only handle between 60 and 70 patients per trip, and the staff has to examine and triage all patients according to need. With conditions often changing on the ground, it became a time-consuming and challenging task to keep on top of it all using big stacks of papers and file folders.
One of the people who realized there had to be a better way was Andrew Berenato, from the Strategic Alliances team at VMware AirWatch. During his travels as a Surgicorps volunteer, Andrew immediately realized that this process could be handled via ProntoForms’ mobile solution.
“AirWatch is proud to offer device and app management to help setup and deliver mission critical apps to the iPads used by the Surgicorps team, and with ProntoForms’ help, we’re making a big difference for the teams on the ground,” he said. “By eliminating the operational challenges around patient forms, we are allowing the Surgicorps teams to focus on the most important aspect of the trip – the patients.”
Today, Surgicorps’ medical procedures in the field are scheduled and managed on iPad Pros running ProntoForms. Medical notes, along with embedded photos, are all kept as part of a single data record for each patient, and complete reports can easily be shared with local clinics and hospitals via email. The remote areas don’t always have network connectivity, but since the ProntoForms solution works offline, it’s easy to fill out all forms on the ground, and once the team travels into a town or a city, the solution workflow automatically connects to the network and submits the forms.
The recent trip to Bhutan concluded on May 3, 2016, and the Surgicorps team is currently gearing up to go to Mexico between July 9-16.
The entire ProntoForms team would like to offer the Surgicorps team the best of luck in Mexico. Have a safe trip, and we look forward to hearing more about the lives you’re changing.
Written by Mats Lindeberg, Communications Manager.
