According to reports, The International Medical Corps will recognize Research In Motion (RIM) at its upcoming 2011 Annual Awards Celebration in Los Angeles, US, next week for BlackBerry’s role in assisting disaster-recovery efforts globally. International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, non-profit organisation that is a first responder, providing medical assistance and health care to populations that have been impacted by natural disasters, conflict, and disease.
“We are recognising Research In Motion with the Global Impact Award for the role of BlackBerry smartphones in our operations on the front lines,” said Nancy A Aossey, International Medical Corps president and CEO. “I can tell you that our use of BlackBerry smartphones literally saves lives.”
“You just don’t know what kind of a setting you’re going to arrive in,” said Dr Neil Joyce, who has worked with International Medical Corps in Angola, Bosnia, and Afghanistan, among many others, and helped lead its Emergency Response Team in Haiti. “As we arrived in Port-au-Prince, the cellphones were not working, but I was able to send messages with my BlackBerry smartphone.”
“In doing humanitarian aid, we need to make contact with relevant people who can help, like DART [Disaster Assistance Response Team], the military, the United Nations, the Red Cross, and other agencies, as well as the media,” said Dr Joyce. “BlackBerry puts you in contact with the people on the ground and the people on the outside who can help. We really could not have done aid work in the modern setting without a BlackBerry smartphone. It made a huge difference.”
“It is not only the device of choice, but the device of need,” said Aguirre. “Doctors and nurses treating patients amid rubble and under trees were able to communicate with each other about patients needing immediate surgery and to co-ordinate the urgent transport of blood supplies. BlackBerry helps us communicate to get the materials to where they’re needed and to find out where things are in the moment of an emergency.”
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For more information about the International Medical Corps, visit www.internationalmedicalcorps.org.