On the 4th April, the Canadian Centre for Marine Communications (CCMC) announced a $100,000 (CAD) contribution to the Tele-health and Educational Technology Resources Agency (TETRA) of Memorial University of Newfoundland towards dramatically improving emergency medical response to marine vessels travelling in Canadian waters.
The support for MIST is being made through CCMC''s Marine Information Skyway. Dr. Carl Robbins, chair of TETRA, said, "Delivery of health services to remote communities has always been an important part of the educational and service mission of the medical school and TETRA at Memorial University. In this project, we intend to study the use of tele-health technologies to improve health services to ships at sea. The potential benefits are significant indeed".
Dwight Howse, manager of Marine Information Skyway, added, "CCMC is pleased to be a partner in the development of the MIST project. This project enables the tele-medicine expertise resident within TETRA to be applied to a range of commercial opportunities in both marine and remote terrestrial environments."
This project demonstrates a healthy spirit of co-operation with participating partners from the provincial, national and international arenas. Marine Interactive Satellite Technologies (MIST) MIST equips marine vessels with high-speed mobile satellite communication terminals that can link patients or on-board medical staff with medical experts on shore.
Along with the use for emergency purposes, the terminals can be used by passengers for everything from checking their office e-mail to booking a hotel at their destination port. Using the same principle, the concept has been extended to land and airborne ambulances, allowing emergency doctors to monitor the vital signs of patients in transit and prepare for their arrival, using mobile satellite communications technology.
About Marine Information Skyway:
Marine Information Skyway is an investment initiative directed towards commercial opportunities in marine satellite communications applications. Support for this initiative comes from Canadian Space Agency through the Canada Space Plan. The fund is administered by CRC and delivered through CCMC.
About TETRA:
TETRA is an R&D facility established to facilitate the use of information technology and telecommunications to non-urban, remote and isolated areas. The extensive resources of the centre are used by a province-wide consortium including health, education (secondary and post secondary), social, government and private agencies.
About CCMC:
CCMC is a national organisation mandated to collaborate with the Canadian marine information and communications technology (ICT) industry in the development of products and services for global marine markets. CCMC facilitates strategic partnerships between industry, research centres, academia and government in support of the growth of the Canadian marine ICT sector. Acting as a genuine investment partner in each new business venture, CCMC has demonstrated a significant positive impact on both the technical and commercial success of this industry.
