PHILIPSBURG--The advantages of virtual medicine solutions and telemedicine will be examined at a free seminar being organised by BENU Pharmacies in St. Maarten at the Great Bay Room at Divi Little Bay Beach Resort, this Wednesday, January 9, from 6:30 to 7:30pm.
Registration is from 6:00 to 6:30pm.
Aruba’s former Minister of Health and Sports and Vera Health and Education BV Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Richard Visser will be the guest speaker at the seminar.
Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technology to provide clinical health care from a distance. It has been used to overcome distance barriers and to improve access to medical services that often would not be consistently available.
Aruba-based Visser told The Daily Herald on Monday that St Maarten could benefit tremendously from telemedicine, because it will allow much greater access to high care, specialists and collaboration between the islands and with Colombia, the United States and the Netherlands.
“Imagine being able to get a live second opinion or a full consult from a specialist in Colombia or Holland without leaving the island. Imagine if we could turn your bed at home into a hospital bed with 24/7 remote monitoring. You could connect to the urgent care without leaving the house and get advice from your doctor or specialised nurse – all this and more is now possible,” Visser said.
“It will elevate the quality of care on the island. It will create access to specialised care like never before while helping to lower the cost. This is the future of care.”
Vera Health and Education BV developed a medical cloud system called VERA. The app and all the diagnostic systems are put together by Vera’s in-house team of engineers.
“We are an end-to-end telehealth provider, meaning we manage all aspects and parts of the system, including the back of the house, specialists, nurses and health coordinators,” Visser said.
Visser and his partner have developed “every aspect” of Vera’s telemedicine system and are currently working on projects in the Benelux, Scandinavia, Middle East, Turkey and the USA, and have a pending project in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the Caribbean. Other projects in the pipeline include Suriname, Rwanda and South Africa
As a former Minister of Health and Sports in Aruba, Visser said he has helped to transform the island from one heavy island to one healthy island. “I’m a lifestyle specialist, doctor of chiropractic and I have a PhD in medical sciences. My area of research has been in childhood obesity and chronic diseases,” he said.
He has done population studies in Aruba, Bonaire, Cuba, Ecuador and Peru with international publications. He has also done collaborations with VU Amsterdam, WHO and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), as well as several projects with the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), amongst others.
He has a new book The Aruba Project, which he said will be released worldwide in a few days.
Visser, who is also a board member and part owner of BENU Caribbean Pharmacies, said St Maarten has always been a special place for him and his family, so much so that they decided to invest and purchase pharmacies in St. Maarten from a fellow Aruban.
“We have seen St Maarten change and were very involved when the hurricane recently hit the island. Our teams from the other islands came together led by the BENU St. Maarten team and really got involved to assist and help the population as much as possible. We believe we made a difference for the people of St Maarten,” he said.
He urges everyone in St. Maarten to attend the seminar and learn more about virtual medicine solutions, including physicians, nurses, administrators, school administrators, hospitals, clinics, insurance providers and the public in general.
“I'm inviting all of St Maarten to come see and experience what is possible – come see how we do it,” he said.
