Domestic Violence Emergency Training Technology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryLBCu097ns

This video is not ours alone but is public on youtube and was uploaded by cdv.org of a real 911 domestic violence call from a child witnessing abuse. This is happening daily in every city, and you can hear from the audio that our first responders are not well trained and prepared for these very violent and critical calls.

Vanguard Medicine's mission is to provide accredited, high-quality standardized domestic violence training for first responders that is easily accessible and provides practical tools and support at the point of care. This is the first of its kind ever to be developed.

In 2020 and 2021, we won three healthcare innovation awards from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for our novel approach to combating violence against women and children by educating and supporting the frontline. 

Problem We Are Solving

700 victims call 911 every day due to domestic violence in New York City and 400 every day in Philadelphia and the numbers have been steady for the past 10 years. This is a MAJOR unaddressed issue in every city across the globe. First responders and emergency medical professionals are burdened with meeting the needs of these vulnerable women (primarily) and children.

The lack of trained first responders is one factor in the chronic cycle of violence these vulnerable women and children face. In fact, research shows that a few of the barriers to providing compassionate care are personal discomfort, lack of knowledge, and time constraints. This often results in inappropriate, insufficient, or no response/screening at all, which puts the victim at a heightened risk for revictimization, further injury, and even death. 

Market Size and Opportunity

This is an ongoing public health issue in every community worldwide. In a report by Peterson, Kearns, and McIntosh (2018), the cost per victim as attributable to healthcare costs, loss of productivity, and involvement of the criminal justice system were analyzed. For every female victim, a lifetime cost of $103,767 was determined. For male victims, it was significantly less, but still a hefty number of $23,414. Totaled, they estimated a population economic burden of nearly $3.6 trillion (2014 US$).

Our Product

We have designed a learning management system and on-demand peer support technology that both educates and supports the responder in providing the best care and making the impactful decision in the moment.  By supporting our first responders and clinicians they are better equipped to intervene in domestic violence, educate the victims on their rights, help safety plan, and provide meaningful support for them at the point of care.

Why We are Crowdfunding

We have created fifteen (15) best practice courses, downloadable handouts, additional on-demand tools and resources, as well as our minimal viable product (MVP) technology.

In our initial market research completed at Mount Sinai in New York with 29 emergency room doctors in July of 2021 our training has successfully proven to have a significant impact on providers domestic violence knowledge, situational awareness, and overall improvement in their confidence level with this patient population.

Since then, we began designing the new framework for a fully developed and designed platform that will meet the specific needs of the providers based on our research and what providers are asking for to better meet their needs on the ground.

We also plan for the new platform to offer state-of-the-art training content using AI to create AR/VR learning environments for a more in-depth training experience for the first responder and medical professional. This training provides healthcare professionals with the opportunity to practice navigating potentially dangerous scenarios in a safe gamified virtual environment.

The Team: Our team information can be found at: https://vanguardmedicine.org/about-us

Why this is Important

The money raised here will not only help reduce injury and save the lives of those experiencing chronic abuse, but will also support those working on the frontline of this crisis everyday. 

We THANK YOU for helping us support those who support us!

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Source: Peterson, C., Kearns, M. C., McIntosh, W. L. K. W., Estefan, L. F., Nicolaidis, C., McCollister, K. E., Gordon, A., & Florence, C. (2018). Lifetime Economic Burden of Intimate Partner Violence Among U.S. Adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 55(4), 433–444. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.AMEPRE.2018.04.049