SES SA and the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs announced recently they have extended a contract to maintain and support Satmed, an e-health satellite platform, until 2020.
Under the new contract, SES will continue to develop the Satmed platform and its medical applications, support the platform’s data-hosting facility, and provide full user support with single point of contact, the company said in a statement. The agreement also includes the extension of the service to support new medical tools, as well as the provision of satellite connectivity over Africa, the Philippines and Bangladesh.
The Satmed solution is designed to connect doctors and nurses based in remote locations to the outside world. Health-care professionals will use satellite connectivity to access the platform’s medical applications such as e-training, accessing patients’ e-medical records, virtual consultation, and video conferencing. Satmed is also aimed at supporting regional development programs and humanitarian operations in cooperation with both governmental and non-governmental organizations. Connectivity is enabled by the SES satellite fleet while the Satmed Web applications and the encrypted back-ups are hosted in a secured data hosting facility in Luxembourg. Once deployed, the platform is delivered as a fully managed service and includes helpdesk, maintenance of terminals and continuous user training.
According to Gerhard Bethscheider, managing director of SES Techcom Services, they had 10 Satmed deployments across Africa and Asia since 2014.
“The contract extension will help Satmed reinforce its positions as an internationally recognized e-health platform and, what is paramount for us, continue to bring innovative e-health solutions to remote communities,” Bethscheider was quoted in a statement as saying. “We are also looking forward to integrating new tools in the platform.”
“Extending the contract with SES will enable us to develop health care through the Satmed platform on a global scale,” the minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Romain Schneider, was quoted as saying. “The platform we are providing together with partner NGOs has already helped improve healthcare in countries like Benin, Niger, Philippines and Bangladesh, among others.”
Image credits: SES