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Design and evolution of the Seafarer’s Health Passport for supporting (tele)-medical assistance to seafarers
Affiliations- Telemedicine and Telepharmacy Centre, School of Medicinal and Health Products Sciences, University of Camerino, Italy
- Technological Development Group, CIRM SERVIZI Srl, Rome, Italy
- Research Department, International Radio Medical Centre (CIRM), Rome, Italy
open access
Abstract
Background: Seafarers undergo periodic medical examination for their employment. This information in most cases is not effectively used when requesting for medical assistance during service on board ships. The medical history of an individual is important for provision of medical care and can be critical to the outcome. There is growing adoption of digital applications and electronic health records that are adding great value to the care provided. The Seafarer’s Health Passport (SHP) is an application specifically designed for improving the quality of medical assistance provided to seafarers both through telemedicine or classic medical check-ups in ports/hospitals worldwide. The SHP provides a secure and unique way to archive and retrieve the seafarer’s medical history in an electronic support.
Materials and methods: The SHP that we have developed is a product with specific hardware and software specifications. The basic features of this software are Linux operating system Debian/Ubuntu, Apache Web server 2.x, Server database MySQL/Maria DB PHP programming language 5.6.xx, and secure connection in https.
Results: The SHP represents a helpful hint to physicians providing medical advices to seafarers enabling them to make more decisions that are informed and curtailing possible complications due to misdiagnosis.
Conclusions: Provision of high quality medical assistance requires knowledge of patient’s medical history. The availability of an easy access and friendly use system of own medical history is useful for a population of travellers, such as seafarers to guarantee a reasonable level of medical care at any time.
Abstract
Background: Seafarers undergo periodic medical examination for their employment. This information in most cases is not effectively used when requesting for medical assistance during service on board ships. The medical history of an individual is important for provision of medical care and can be critical to the outcome. There is growing adoption of digital applications and electronic health records that are adding great value to the care provided. The Seafarer’s Health Passport (SHP) is an application specifically designed for improving the quality of medical assistance provided to seafarers both through telemedicine or classic medical check-ups in ports/hospitals worldwide. The SHP provides a secure and unique way to archive and retrieve the seafarer’s medical history in an electronic support.
Materials and methods: The SHP that we have developed is a product with specific hardware and software specifications. The basic features of this software are Linux operating system Debian/Ubuntu, Apache Web server 2.x, Server database MySQL/Maria DB PHP programming language 5.6.xx, and secure connection in https.
Results: The SHP represents a helpful hint to physicians providing medical advices to seafarers enabling them to make more decisions that are informed and curtailing possible complications due to misdiagnosis.
Conclusions: Provision of high quality medical assistance requires knowledge of patient’s medical history. The availability of an easy access and friendly use system of own medical history is useful for a population of travellers, such as seafarers to guarantee a reasonable level of medical care at any time.
Keywords
seafarers; electronic health record; medical information management; health passport; personal health tracking
About this articleTitle
Design and evolution of the Seafarer’s Health Passport for supporting (tele)-medical assistance to seafarers
Journal
Issue
Article type
Original article
Pages
151-157
Published online
2019-10-03
Page views
1513
Article views/downloads
1145
DOI
Pubmed
Bibliographic record
IMH 2019;70(3):151-157.
Keywords
seafarers
electronic health record
medical information management
health passport
personal health tracking
Authors
Giulio Nittari
Antonio Arcese
Gopi Battineni
Krutika Khuman
Graziano Pallotta
Andrea Saturnino
Fabio Sibilio
Francesco Amenta
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