Telemedicine on board cruise ships
A new application of the Telesal Project presented in Rome. A virtual emergency room for maritime use
18 Nov 2008
On November 17 and 18, at the Hospital "Ospedale Generalizio del Fatebenefratelli" in ROme, Telesal, a telemedicine project by ASI, will introduce its latest maritime experiments, including an application to provide telemedicine services on board cruise ships. Telesal is presently the most important telemedicine project financed by the Italian Space Agency, with a gropu of small and medium enterprises led by KELL and several scientific and health-sector organizations.
The project was born to experiment new service models in telemedicine, thanks to the use of new and dedicated technologies. During the press conference, the so-called “maritime telemedicine” will be presented. Thanks to an agreement with Costa Crociere, the TELESAL technology will be onboard the Concordia, the Costa fleet’s flagship, and will provide cruisers and crew with a real virtual emergency room, working around the clock to support the resident medical staff.
“The satellite, in such a context” explained Alberto Canciani, ASI responsible for Telecommunication projects, "proved to be a reliable technology for at least two reasons: extraterritorialty and the possibility to transmit under any weather condition. These features allowed Telesal to develop telemedicine applications which can work in critical situations, not reached by other terrestrial communications”.
“After the pilot phase” Cesare Aragno, TELESAL project manager explained, “the TELESAL scarl company will bring validated products to the market”.