Starting this fall, the Italian cruise line MSC Cruises will offer guests a 24/7 multilingual pediatric telemedicine service on board.
The initiative is though a partnership with the Giannina Gaslini Institute, a pediatric hospital in Genoa, Italy. MSC Cruises will install new technology across its entire fleet to enable ship-to-shore care of children with onshore support from specialists at the Gaslini Institute.
Operational September 1, 2014, fleet-wide, MSC Cruises' onboard doctors will be able to consult specialist pediatricians at any time to seek a second opinion or carry out procedures such as remote diagnosis, radiology and monitoring, the cruise line announced in a news release. The organization added that it has become the first cruise line in the world to offer such services.
This innovation attempts to further improve onboard medical responses through diagnostic and therapeutic functions that were once only possible on land. The link-up, via satellite, will be available on all MSC Cruises itineraries anywhere on the planet.
The telemedicine technology is managed by the Rochester, N.Y.-based Carestream, which has developed a platform to enable requests for distance consultation to be made easily from the remotest locations, allowing Gaslini doctors to move quickly with diagnoses and referrals. The process is fully computerized, from the consultation request to the response.
