Gard Launches A Medico Guide: A New Health App For Seafarers

The Norwegian Center for Maritime and Diving Medicine GARD has reportedly introduced a one-of-its-kind international digital medical guide for enhancing onboard medical treatment and saving the lives of seafarers.

The Medico Mariners Guide is a unique app built and designed especially for Mariners. This app offers step-by-step instructions to enable the processing of the crew members onboard.

The guide also shares a step-by-step introduction to how emergency medical situations on vessels can be tackled. The guide is unique as it comes with a symptom-based approach that reportedly makes it simpler for the user to receive relevant advice and the right medical aid. Additionally, the healthcare-specific content is going to be continuously updated. The Norwegian Center for Maritime Medicine and Diving Medicine is responsible for the healthcare content.

The need for medical assistance at sea has exponentially increased in recent years, and through the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for care related to mental health care heightened. The work to develop such a digital health service kickstarted back in 2019. The result has strictly followed the elements of service design, where the emphasis has been on gaining insights into the seafarers’ needs.

A series of interviews were carried out with seafarers who had medical duties and based on this, the prototypes were developed, and user tests were carried out. The feedback from the prototypes was essential to establish a thorough design direction for other development activities. Besides, there was a significant production of health-related content in the form of medical processes.

Sonat and Youwell have also played crucial roles in the guide development on the Youwell platform.

Reference: Gard, Youwell