Company Description

TeleMedical Environments is engaged in business for the purpose of providing the most effective system of relieving posttraumatic stress disorder available in the marketplace in a manner that is efficient and effective to its clients and profitable to its partners and investors.

Executive Leadership

For Liora Stein, a lifelong career in IT and related business and product development coupled with an education in Social Work & Special Education led to an “Aha!!” moment which brought these two divergent worlds together in April of 2006.  While demonstrating an innovative, intimate, teleconferencing product during a contract assignment and simultaneously studying Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR), Ms. Stein realized that distance therapy was possible in a way it never had been possible before.  She began the R&D process of identifying hardware and software development strategies which would eventually incorporate into TeleMedical Environments.

  Dr. Marc Einhorn, Psy.D. has been evaluating veterans to identify the Complex form of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for nearly thirty years, and has used EMDR in his clinical psychology practice since 1995.  He continues to evaluate the condition of veterans who are now over thirty years beyond active duty.  Dr. Einhorn finds that even with years of continuous treatment at V.A. Hospitals, these veterans have typically made little or no improvement since military discharge.  Medication may lessen the severity of some of the symptoms, but the symptoms never go away.  Dr. Einhorn states, “These symptoms remain the proverbial albatross around their necks causing disabling impairment of global adaptive functioning.  In summation the V.A. Hospital System does not offer an effective treatment for the Complex form of posttraumatic stress disorder.  TeleMedical Environments, Inc. can provide this treatment

The Global View

Our vision includes making this particular type of deeply effective healing available wherever in the world that it may be needed.  Beginning with the emergent need within our society, we seek to provide relief, healing and the return to a normal and productive life to our veteran population.  Further, we seek to extend our services to other client populations who have acquired PTSD from circumstances outside of combat including violent acts of crime, sexual assault, long term sexual abuse & incest, natural disasters and extreme familial dysfunction.  Governmental agencies could incorporate the use of our treatment rooms and equipment as well as private organizations and medical corporations.

As the company matures all types of medical specialty treatment software and services can be developed using the same communication and guidance systems.  Initial investigation into providing cardiac, pulmonary, neurological and oncology specialty care should be investigated during year two and year three of our development.  Potential therapeutic medical applications are extensive including cognitive, physical and occupational rehabilitation, occupational medicine and physiatry.  All specialty areas of psychology and psychiatry and related training and research, which can replace the traditional two way mirror training setting.  Chronic problems of inter-rater reliability in pharmaceutical research can be addressed and solved.  The possibilities are vast.

All most all of the data processing modules for our product are completed for the commercial sector, with agency specific programming and modules slated to be developed to their individual needs and specifications.  Partnered with Sun Microsystems, Inc. resources are immediately available to perform our technical proof of concept by the end of 2008.  Surveys relevant to the needs of the EMDR community are being developed to determine what specific features of our  environments will be most beneficial to their patients and their practices.

What is EMDR?

As described by the EMDR Institute, Inc.; Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is more commonly known as EMDR and was developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro.  EMDR is an “information processing theory” and uses an eight stage approach to successful treatment.  Shapiro’s Information Processing Theory explains and predicts the treatment effects of EMDR in addition to describing the development of personality, psychological problems and mental disorders.  All human beings are understood to process their experiences in a physical manner – through their body’s sensory systems.  All of these experiences serve to create multilayered “networks” of memory, which later integrate into related thoughts, images, emotions and sensations.  “Learning” occurs when new associations are forged with existing ones through the establishment of neural pathways.  As these experiences are reinforced with additional experiences, thoughts or ideology the neural pathways are increasingly strengthened.

When PTSD occurs, the life threatening event may be sequestered causing the natural information processing progression to be incomplete.  This prevents the forging of new neural pathways and behaviors with more adaptive information.  For instance, a veteran may intellectually understand that he is no longer in combat and that he does not need to patrol the perimeter of his back yard to provide safety to himself or his family.  However, this information does not connect with his unceasing feeling of being under threat of attack.  Thinking about the war trauma triggers his need to compulsively patrol his back yard to ensure his safety.

EMDR provides a form of reprocessing that mimics the body’s natural alleviation of stress and discomfort, bypassing the body’s natural defense system and providing immediate relief of the symptoms of PTSD.  Essentially, the supposition is that our natural emotional process occurs while we are sleeping experiencing “rapid eye movement” (REM) and that the eye movements inherent with EMDR emulate this natural process enabling the system to bypass other defense systems.

In order to heal, the soldier turned civilian must successfully adjust to home life and be relieved of the need to constantly protect himself.  While traditional “talking therapy” may relieve some anxiety, the discussion of the events actually reactivates the mind and body’s natural defense mechanisms.  Some success has been found in a technique known as Exposure Therapy which exposes the veteran to the experiences repeatedly until the sensation is lessened by the repeated exposure.  Exposure therapy is very expensive and requires long term treatment with limited conclusive results.  EMDR is the most dramatic and fastest acting form of treatment available for Simple PTSD.  But the availability of this technique is limited by the length of time the therapy has been available and the number of therapists currently trained, access to treatment has been limited.  Additionally, particular types of trauma are now being labeled as “Complex PTSD”.  Standard forms of EMDR do not incorporate all of the features of Dr. Furukawa’s Arch Decision Tree System ™, which is more effective than standard EMDR for treating Complex PTSD.

Dr. Furukawa explains, “Complex PTSD is a network, a matrix of interrelated traumas (a snake's nest at that).  This is why traditional talking therapy does not sufficiently impact Complex PTSD.  Traditional talking therapy was devised in a linear model of science. A leads to B leads to C.  Therapy using traditional approaches accesses and addresses traumas one at a time.”

He goes on to assert that, “In Complex PTSD the traumas are interlinked in a matrix.  When one trauma is accessed the whole complex begins to open up, reactivating the nest of traumas which come flooding in, too fast and too intense for the client or therapist to manage.  Through P.E.T. scan imaging studies of the brain before (top image, next page) and after, it is believed that EMDR works through bilateral stimulation of the neocortex by activating rapid eye movement (REM).  This bilateral stimulation results in the reconnection of neural links in a more efficient way.  The result of this reprocessing is the desensitization and neutralization of felt trauma.

Because EMDR works using a different model, a multimodal model that more closely resembles the cybernetic model of the brain, core traumas can be rapidly reprocessed at a rate faster than can be articulated by the client.  This re-processing action appears to be organic, that is, safe and natural, as if the brain has a self-healing mechanism that is activated by EMDR and is directed into the dysfunctional network (the nest) where it allows the brain to sort out the neural net into a more functional network of neural pathways.”

In short, this translates to the delivery of the most effective, fast acting and cost efficient treatment available to the marketplace when strategically developed and delivered as envisioned by TeleMedical Environments, Inc.

(Before and after EMDR brain scans. Top photo shows woman with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Bottom photo shows same patient after four ninety minute EMDR sessions. The red areas indicate overactivity in the brain. Photo by Dr. Daniel Amen http://www.sandiegoemdr.com/)

If you or a loved one is suffering from simple or complex posttraumatic stress disorder, please contact us today.  If we are unavailable in your area, we will provide a referral for a TeleMedical Environments trained professional, or an EMDR Level II trained professional.