Children’s Health Fund, Stanford Children’s Health Unveil New Mobile Medical Unit

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Underserved adolescents from San Francisco to San Jose, California will be the recipients of the most technologically advanced mobile healthcare following the 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 Children’s Health and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Through a generous grant from Samsung, the program will provide advanced mobile healthcare 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.

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, M.D., 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.

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 healthcare more accessible for children in need.

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