VIGILINT www.vigilint.com, providing health protection for global workforce and travelers along with the Cleveland Clinic www.clevelandclinic.org are offering the Global MedAssist program (GMAP) www.vigilint.com/gmap-global-medical-assistance-program, a telemedicine program to travelers anywhere in the world.
Local healthcare providers, hospitals, and pharmacies may lack the adequate resources, training, experience, or patient records to provide the proper treatment for business or other travelers with chronic or emergency health problems.
This collaboration combines VIGILINT’s specialized emergency physicians and emergency preparedness experts with Cleveland Clinic’s global practice of physicians and specialists. Created in response to the increased demand for high level medical care and consultations for global travelers, the distance health collaboration augments existing health insurance with on-demand full spectrum care through a single point-of-contact.
The GMAP team at the Medical Operations Center is able to provide immediate access to healthcare providers to deliver comprehensive individualized healthcare solution and continuity of care throughout the medical event. This experienced GMAP team is now working with Cleveland Clinic’s 3,000 physicians practicing in 140 medical specialties and subspecialties.
In other news, telemedicine is also helping to revolutionize seafaring healthcare as reported by Martek Marine. The UK & Singapore-based company called iVital is now able to provide crew members access to state-of-the-art medical monitoring equipment on board ships and 24/7 access to a team of healthcare professionals on shore.
If a crew member operating a vessel, should fall ill, or suffer an injury, another crew member can use a dedicated tablet computer to immediately contact a doctor with an in-depth knowledge on how to deliver treatments at sea.
The doctor is than able to assess the sailor’s condition through iVital’s High Definition video call service while calling on other crew members to measure the patient’s vital signs by using a blood pressure monitor, pulse oximeter, thermometer, an ECG monitor, and a glucometer.
The doctor can make an informed decision as to whether the ship needs to divert, or a helicopter is needed to evacuate the patient, or whether the patient is well enough for the vessel to continue and further treat the patient at the next port of call.
Paul Luen, CEO Martek Marine, said, “While telemedicine itself has been available for vessels for some time, it has always been prohibitively expensive. However, Martek has been working hard to rectify the situation and was able to launch telemedicine at a fraction of the cost by using the right approach. The use of iVital technology simply focuses on the real necessities to ensure that ship owners get all the crucial functionality of telemedicine at a fraction of its previous cost.”