Ship co trials Plain decision support

European based shipping management group, Intresco, has announced that it will trial Plain Healthcare’s Odyssey MarineAssess to provide its ships’ crews with fast and efficient medical advice when out at sea.

The software, which will be provided on touch screen tablets, is designed to be used by the ships’ captains in the event of a crew illness or emergency when the ship is too far from land to access medical facilities and when communications are limited.

Intresco has its own health professionals, who take calls if a medical emergency occurs. The Plain software can collate a clinical summary that can be passed to a server on shore, for review by the company's medical staff. 

They can then provide further advice and decide whether crew members need to be brought on-shore. The company hopes that the technology will save money by avoiding evacuations and the diversion of ships, which can incur considerable costs.

Mauro Formentin, director of Intresco, said: “We are looking forward to trialling this highly innovative system on our ships.

"We feel it will give us an edge in providing top class care advice for our seafarers and at the same time allow a more cost effective operation of our ships with reduced down time and off hire claims.”

Plain healthcare traditionally supplies clinical decision support systems to walk in centres and GP surgeries. This is the first trial of the new MarineAssess product, which has been released ahead of schedule.

Barry Giddings, chairman of Plain Healthcare, said:"We believe the Odyssey MobileAssess range, which is designed to work with state of the art touchscreen technology, will provide us a significant opportunity in both the UK and internationally.

“We are very excited about the on-board trial with Intresco and know their feedback and input will be extremely valuable in attempting to ensure that Odyssey MarineAssess satisfies the needs of the shipping industry.”

Link: Plain Healthcare