Gard launches Mariners Medico Guide: New health app developed for seafarers
Gard launched the Mariners Medico Guide ( https://www.medicoguide.no/ ) on 27 October, which is an emergency medical guide and app for all the world's seafarers. There is a complete guide available for download on Google Play and the Apple Appstore.
The guide provides a step-by-step introduction to how emergency medical situations on board vessels can be handled. Often far out to sea, far from the nearest emergency room, often also without access to the internet. The guide is unique because it has a symptom-based approach that makes it easier for the user to get relevant advice and the right medical help. In addition, the healthcare content will be continuously updated. Responsible for the healthcare content is the Norwegian Center for Maritime Medicine and Diving Medicine at Haukeland University Hospital.
The need for medical assistance at sea has increased in recent years and through the pandemic the need for mental health care also increased. The work to develop this digital health service started in full in 2019. The work has followed the principles of service design where the emphasis was on gaining insight into the needs of seafarers. A wide range of interviews were conducted with seafarers with medical responsibilities, and based on this, prototypes were made and user tests carried out. The feedback from the first prototypes was important in order to establish a clear design direction for the further development work. In parallel with this, there was a large production of health-related content in the form of medical procedures.
Sonat ( www.sonat.no ) and Youwell ( www.youwell.no ) have been responsible for the development of the guide based on the Youwell platform.
There have been many participants in the project from Sonat and Youwell's side. Big thanks to Per Kåre Otteren (team lead and architect), Li-Hsuan Chen (design), Vicoria Isern (service design), Pål Trefall (development), Magnus Hopland (development) and Adrian Heggernes (development).
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