Help in Many Ways

Your purchase can help in many ways. Besides getting back pain relief for yourself, or to whomever will be receiving and using the BackInBand®, with each BackInBand® purchase, a portion of sales goes to helping someone in medical need. Founder, Dr. Brendan Armm, has supported “M.A. Centers” since 1997. Now, when you buy the BackInBand®, you will also be supporting the following humanitarian cause:

M.A. Centers (in support of Ammachi’s worldwide humanitarian activities — Building Homes for the Poor, Care Homes for Children, Disaster Relief, Fighting Hunger, Providing Healthcare)

BackInBand®, as a company focused on healthcare and in particular back pain relief, we have a particular interest in Amma’s “Healthcare & Nutrition” charitable division, which includes:

AIMS Tertiary Hospital, Kochi, Kerala
Our 1,600-bed tertiary-care hospital in Kochi offers cutting-edge healthcare services for those who would otherwise have nowhere to turn to.

More than 100 Medical Drives Annually
Every year AIMS conducts more than 100 free health drives in remote, impoverished areas. Complex cases are referred to AIMS for specialized care.

Specialized Pediatric Care
In 2010 alone, AIMS performed 533 pediatric heart surgeries for patients without ability to pay. The surgeries were performed free of charge.

AIMS Five Charitable Hospitals
Given that physical access to treatment facilities remains an obstacle towards receiving care, AIMS have already built five satellite hospitals.

What AIMS Accomplished
Amma says that if we cut our left hand, our right hand immediately comes to its attention—applying medicine and a bandage. Why? Because we know both hands to be our own. In the same way, we should reach out to the poor and suffering, seeing our inherent unity.

It is this vision that serves as the inspiration and drive behind the Embracing the World’s vast network of medical services for the poor and needy—an ever growing circle of hospices, care centers and hospitals aimed at providing state-of-the-art compassionate care to one and all. Embracing the World’s Healthcare Charities can be broadly divided into Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Amrita Kripa Charitable Hospitals, Telemedicine Units apart from the extensive Disaster Relief Operations of the Medical Teams and Research to provide very affordable Healthcare to the poor, for example, the inexpensive insulin pump for the rural diabetic communities. More than $60 Million in free medical care has been provided since 1998.

AMRITA INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES (AIMS)
The crown jewel of these institutions is the Amrita Institute of Medical Science or AIMS, a 1600-bed super-specialty hospital in Cochin, Kerala. Born out of Amma’s desire to provide outstanding and affordable medical care to all regardless of one’s ability to pay, Amrita is one of Asia’s premier medical hospitals. Patients come to the hospital from all parts of India and the world.

AIMS has 1,600 beds with an attached medical college with a 400 bed facility, offering free or subsidized care. It’s extensive infrastructure offers facilities comprising 25 modern operating theaters. It has 210 equipped intensive-care beds.
AIMS: has a fully computerized and networked Hospital Information System (HIS)
AIMS: has a fully digital radiology department
AIMS: has NABL accredited clinical laboratories
AIMS: has equipped 24 / 7 telemedicine service.
AIMS: supports a daily patient volume of about 3000 outpatients with 95 percent inpatient occupancy.

AIMS: annual patient turnover touches an incredible figure of over 779,055 outpatients and nearly 47,577 inpatients.
More than 7.6 Million patients treated – 4.1 Million patients treated for free
Has provided more than $85 Million in charitable healthcare since its inception in 1998.

AMRITAKRIPA CHARITABLE HOSPITALS, HOSPICE AND TELEMEDICINE
Embracing the World also runs a Cancer hospice in Mumbai and an AIDS care home in Trivandrum. Teams of doctors regularly make trips to remote villages to conduct eye camps, health-awareness campaigns and checkups. Ambulances and medical teams travel to disaster areas. Free medical dispensaries for the public are located both in Amritapuri (Indian Headquarters) as well as in Amma’s branch M.A.Centers. Amritakripa Charitable hospitals are located in Amritapuri, Mysore, Karnataka as well as in Pampa and Kalpetta, Kerala. All these branch hospitals are connected to AIMS via a telemedicine satellite link provided by the India Space Research Organization [ISRO]. The Charitable Hospitals cater to the healthcare needs of the poor villagers in the surrounding areas including other patients and all treatments are given completely free.

Other services include:
A Mobile Telemedicine Unit, the size of a city bus, bringing sophisticated medical care to remote areas.
More than 100 free medical drives in remote, impoverished areas. When necessary, patients go to the hospital for free.
25 bed hospital near a remote hilltop temple provides for the hundreds of thousands who make the pilgrimage every year
Medical dispensary in Mumbai
HIV/AIDS care center, open daily, providing anti-retroviral drugs and care services
Free cataract surgeries: 726 patients in 2010
Pain and Palliative Home Care: 75,000 impoverished, terminally ill patients treated annually — all free of charge

AYURVEDA
Furthermore, the Embracing the World provides traditional Indian healthcare via its Amrita School of Ayurveda, Hospital & Research Center. Through collaborations between the Ayurveda institution and AIMS, the Embracing the World is encouraging joint research between allopathic medicine and Ayurveda.
Visit the web: http://ayurveda.amrita.edu

RESEARCH
Embracing the World is also focused on conducting pioneering research and has departments exclusively dedicated to cell biology, bioinformatics and stem-cell research as well as Nanomedical Science, where biology, medicine and engineering come together.

For complete, and up to date information, visit:
http://amma.org/global-charities/healthcare-nutrition

Thank you for your purchase and support.