Announcing the first deployment of the Iryo system: improving healthcare for refugees.

By joining forces with the Walk With Me, run by the non-profit organization Tying Vines, Inc., Iryo — a new blockchain startup creating a global participatory healthcare ecosystem — will soon provide a modern electronic health record system for refugee camps in the Middle East.

A Walk With Me refugee camp located in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon. (Photograph: Vasja Bočko/CEO of Iryo)

More than 12 million refugees are currently displaced due to war and other conflicts in the Middle East. Refugees are often faced with a wide range of health-related issues, from chronic life-threatening diseases, to acute respiratory illnesses, viral infections and malnutrition. Refugees need constant access to medical care. Adequate medical IT support for healthcare workers is largely absent, leading to the poor management of health records in the camps.

Due to the high turnover rate of doctors on the ground, having access to a flexible yet robust medical system that simplifies the hand-off procedure from doctor to doctor, while still enabling the collection of longitudinal patient data is paramount.

The Walk With Me organisation is a U.S based NGO that began work in 2015 with a focus on 4 distinct areas:

Community Health

Education

Vocational Training

Trauma counseling

The organisation is headed by Melissa Mitchell, an American national with over three decades of experience working in the Middle East.

Walk with me is headed by Melissa Mitchell, an American national with over three decades of experience working in the Middle East. (Photograph: Vasja Bočko/CEO of Iryo)

Iryo is partnering with the Walk With Me organisation to provide the IT infrastructure needed to improve the quality of healthcare for the refugees in their camps.

Medical care is currently provided in prefabricated containers with fully stocked with basic medical equipment. Tele-consults are provided through the collaboration with Ver2 — Dubai based telemedicine company, whose CEO Brian de Francesca is in the Iryo advisory board.

Initial deployment of the Iryo EHR system will begin in refugee camps located throughout the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, soon followed by the implementation in five other countries (Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and Djibouti).

In January 2018 our CEO Vasja Bočko visited one of the camps in Lebanon.

Patients in refugee camps typically have one smartphone per family, normally with a 3G enabled data connection. Iryo will enable refugees to store health data on their mobile phones, making it possible to take their medical history with them wherever they go. The longitudinal medical data that is collected within the 5 to 7 years that refugees traditionally spend in camps will help to ensure better access to healthcare and undoubtedly improve their overall quality of life.

In January 2018 the CEO of Iryo Vasja Bočko visited one of the refugee camps in Lebanon. Patients in refugee camps typically have one smartphone per family. (Photograph: Vasja Bočko/CEO at Iryo)

Additionally, the Iryo system will also be used for tele-medical consultations. This will enable doctors on the ground to get on-demand support from experts in the global medical community.

From a single camp to the rest of the developing world.

According to United Nations Refugee Agency, 65.3 million people around the globe are forcibly displaced. There are 21.3 million refugees worldwide.

Tying Vines Inc. currently operates 12 projects in 6 countries — Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Djibouti, totaling 11 million refugees. Additional clinics are planned to be established in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Turkey, with a long-term vision of reaching 700 camps worldwide.

Iryo will be seeking funds for the further development of the global participatory healthcare ecosystem through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) which will be announced in the near future.

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Further details about the ICO can be found on https://iryo.network as well as through our newsletter, and social media outlets.

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