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News Archive
Commitment, Vision Help Make Web-based Telehealth Firm a Winner
Pacific Business News, April 28, 2000
By Erika Engle, PBN Staff Writer
The only Native Hawaiian developer of Web-based telehealth and telemedicine systems in the state of Hawaii, Akimeka LLC, has won the Entrepreneurial Success Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
"In terms of ability to achieve, it comes down to the leadership of Vaughn [Garner Akimeka] Vasconcellos , who's the president and CEO," according to Bank of Hawaii Assistant Vice President Susan Wright, of the Business Banking Division, Waikiki District.
Vasconcellos is quick to share the wealth of accolades with "my crews of people, both locally and in Florida - they're very talented," he says. He says the teams are committed to the vision, which is "to provide a technology transfer to underserved communities in the next five years."
Akimeka develops Web-based systems for remote patient consultation for the U.S. Department of Defense. Doctors at military medical facilities in the Southern and Western Pacific use Akimeka's Web-based software to transmit patient information over a secure network to Tripler Army Medical Center. At Tripler, specialists can review the data to provide expert consultation and diagnosis.
Akimeka's software is also used in a similar way by St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii's Mobile Care Health Project. Vans staffed with medical personnel and equipped with laptop computers visit medically underserved areas of the Big Island.
"The most important part of the integrated federal health-care concept," he says, "is to start working with Native Hawaiian health care systems here and on the neighbor islands."
Alu Like Inc. has experienced the commitment of Akimeka in the expansion of its partnership with the Lawrence Livermore national laboratory in California. Alu Like's mission is to "kokua Native Hawaiians who are committed to achieving their potential in caring for themselves, their families, and communities," according to Special Projects Director Doug Knight.
He says, "Our interns who worked with Akimeka have been developing high-tech skills in telemedicine, virtual private networks and other Internet-based high-tech applications that apply to long distance medicine." Knight feels the excellence will expand, as "They've been very supportive and are promoting the idea that we expand this public-private partnership with Tripler, to other high-tech companies." He says, "It's really a win-win for interns who gain experience and companies who can take advantage of the interns' technical background."
"We wanted to definitely have them recognized by the SBA," says banker and nominator Susan Wright, who says the organization provided the guarantee for a line of credit with the Bank of Hawaii. "What the bank looks for," she says, "is, do they have business plan, a long-term vision, goals for the company, and certainly [we considered] what we feel is their growth potential."
Wright, whose business banking division serves small business, with revenues under $5 million, says, "Because of Akimeka's tremendous success and growth," the company is now served by Bankoh's Commercial Banking Department.
Vasconcellos has been building toward this recognition since his youth, spent on Hawaiian Homelands in Hoolehua, Molokai, and then in Papakolea, Oahu. "Growing up, I really saw firsthand the critical need for good health care and immediate screening," he says, noting that Hawaiians have the highest mortality rate in chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension.
Upon graduation from Kamehameha Schools, Vasconcellos attended West Point, spent 15 years as a U.S. Army officer and decided to come home.
Landing a wide-area-network technology contract at Tripler, he was fascinated by the research and development they were involved in. He started Akimeka in 1997, after seeing the tools Tripler was developing for U.S. Department of Defense medical facilities on Guan, Okinawa, Japan and Korea.
He says, "Where they don't have a specialist, only general medical officers it's important for them to do consultation in order to render a diagnosis."
That helps determine whether a patient will need transported Medevac to Tripler or treated on site.
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