WiRED has successfully installed 19 Medical Information Centers (MICs) in Iraq to date, and will bring another 25 facilities to this country in crisis. For the first time in many years, Iraqi doctors and medical students are accessing the latest Western medical information through the Centers. WiRED director Gary Selnow provides this report from his June 2005 trip to Iraq.

Despite the reality that it has become too dangerous for most NGOs to continue their work in Iraq, WiRED’s programs in the war-torn country are gaining momentum as critical resources for the Iraqi medical community.

On October 12, the Center de salud. Perla Maria Norori—Leon’s main medical school—welcomed a new WiRED Medical Information Center (MIC) to Nicaragua. Students, professors and physicians expressed their gratitude for the center and discussed their circumstances in stark terms at MIC’s opening ceremony.

The Center de salud. Perla Maria Norori—Leon’s main medical school—welcomed a new WiRED Medical Information Center (MIC) to Nicaragua. Students, professors and physicians expressed their gratitude for the center and discussed their circumstances in stark terms at MIC’s opening ceremony.

This is an interesting account of the ups and downs of working in a Community Health Information Center in Kenya. The staff normally meets different obstacles along the way—from rough roads and bad weather to hostile clients. This time they literally have to cross a raging river. What is admirable is their neverending enthusiasm to serve people despite adversity.

WiRED recently expanded its partnership with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in June 2005 by launching a new computer lab in Iraq. Through this partnership, WiRED outfitted the Iraqi Teacher’s Union (ITU) with computer equipment and is now providing a complete training course for ITU officials.

According to its Director, Dr. Cesar Flores, the Medical Information Center (MIC) at the Centro de Salud de Sutiava Clinic in Leon, Nicaragua, serves as an important resource for doctors and medical students. The MIC provides up to date medical information which serves not only in the practice of medicine, but also in medical research.

WiRED expanded its Medical Information Center project in the former Yugoslavia with the launch of Centers in the Medical Faculty at the University of Prishtina, Kosovo and at the Medical Faculty at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. Both facilities now provide doctors and medical students with information from a medical CD collection and medical Websites.

Jim Mollen was killed in Iraq on the day before Thanksgiving. Mollen was the U.S. Embassy’s senior advisor on Iraqi educational matters. He was shot to death in a car outside the Green Zone while traveling from a meeting.

Plans for a December installation of the 17 Centers has been delayed because of increasing violence in and around Baghdad and other cities. Pre-election assaults on the population and on government officials have has made transportation and installation of the equipment very difficult everywhere and impossible in some regions…”