KidsCareEverywhere (KCE) was founded by Dr. Ron Dieckmann in 2006. Astonished during his global travels about the lack of current scientific information available to physicians treating sick children in poorly-resourced health settings, Ron imagined transforming medical services by improving physicians’ access to medical knowledge. The transformation he envisioned was digital and built around the mobile phone. While a Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at UCSF, in the early 2000s Ron had veered into the world of medical software and developed with Dr. Rob Pitt in Australia a bold new pediatric software tool viewable on both computers and mobile phones. They named it PEMSoft; it was the world’s first electronic pediatric knowledge system. After release of the first version of PEMSoft in 2005, Ron gifted the software to colleagues in Hanoi, Vietnam. He immediately perceived its monumental application in the poorly-resourced world, where physicians had only decades-old medical textbooks as information sources, even as they toted around modern smart phones. Ron surmised that physicians worldwide, almost all of whom owned mobile phones, would benefit from the mobile app and instant access to up-to-date information. Back in California, Ron knew his vision had legs, and he established KCE as a nonprofit charity to help doctors save children's lives through instant access to PEMSoft on mobile phones.

 

In 2013, PEMSoft was acquired by EBSCO, a multi-national information services company in Ipswich, MA, and PEMSoft was integrated into a larger generic software system called DynaMed. At the time of the acquisition, Ron entered into a philanthropic agreement with EBSCO that supported continued donations of the software in the low-income world through KCE. Since then, the unique partnership between KCE and EBSCO has flourished as EBSCO has shared its immense resources with KCE to help children worldwide. Over 16 years, KCE has gifted PEMSoft and DynaMed software to doctors in public hospitals in 23 countries on three continents: Africa, South America and Asia.

 

Up until recently, KCE's tactical approach to global philanthropy has been to send trainers abroad to directly instruct front-line providers to download and use DynaMed. Easily accessed by mobile phone or computer, and continuously and automatically updated, DynaMed offers a vast repertoire of medical science and utilization/navigation features. Its powerful search engine answers clinical questions within seconds about diagnostic, therapeutic and procedural information as well as drug dosages. These characteristics make DynaMed a tool for providing enlightened care at the bedside as well as for research, teaching and self-education. Also, because the content is totally electronic, the software can also be donated and taught virtually—a major strategic advantage for KCE in recent missions and going forward, whenever travel abroad becomes impractical. The software has been immensely popular and our colleagues consistently view the tool as a highly effective aide to medical practice.

 

By providing free software and by training providers in poorly-resourced health systems, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, resident physicians and medical students, KCE has empowered over 10,000 physicians and providers to save the lives of millions of children.