Feature Story

Charity’s TV Unit to Spread Word of Medical Advances
Reprint of an article by Barbara Boucicaut, Staff Writer at The Record

 

PATERSON – A local children’s charity opened a state-of-the-art television studio where it will broadcast news on medical breakthroughs to physicians and patients around the world.

The new studio, launched Thursday, will also allow Medical Missions for Children to generate money for its mission to deliver medical information for treating children around the world, said Frank Brady, co-founder of the group.

The 8,000-square foot facility, on Getty Avenue in the St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center complex, will be available for rent and will be used by MMC to broadcast videos to announce the newest medical advances.

“There are so many medical breakthroughs that are announced on a weekly basis that the system can’t keep up with,” said Brady. He said many people throughout the world don’t learn of important advances until years after they occur.

“Through video, we want to keep the American public informed on what’s going on in the medical arena,” Brady said.

Brady and his wife, Peg, launched Medical Missions for Children in 1999, and the company has since expanded its teleconference technology to more than 800 hospitals in 108 countries. Doctors in the network are able to diagnose medical conditions, share advice, view live surgeries, even listen to a heartbeat via television across the globe.

The charity’s interactive “telemedicine” media also list medical conditions and symptoms and statistics. It also has early intervention programs for viewers, who include doctors at hospitals and universities. Viewers can choose to see the group’s video productions in multiple languages, Brady said.

In the beginning, the Bradys said, they “made a real pain in the neck of our friends” to raise funds. They conducted golf tournaments and casino nights. The charity now has a Medical Broadcasting Channel, a graphics studio and a children’s theater, all based at St. Joseph’s.

On hand for the launch of the studio were representatives of the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission and a representative from Panasonic, which outfitted the studio with HDTV technology.

The studio will be rented to documentary filmmakers and other broadcasters to raise funds. The Bradys said their goal is to generate revenue from within to keep up with the rapidly growing organization, which has already reached more than 35, 000 children worldwide.

They thought they’d reach a few hundred children when the organization was founded, said Peg Brady. “But it kind of got out of hand,” said Frank Brady.

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