BlueHealthPass

The Challenge:  

Maritime and offshore workers frequently engage in their duties for several months, during which they work and live in unstable and limited accommodation areas, often exposed to severe environmental conditions and suffer from stress, lack of physical exercises, unregular nutrition, etc. At present, seafarers are required to undergo an occasional health assessment procedure before departure. Issued certificates are valid up to two years, during which seafarers’ health conditions are typically not systematically assessed. In these circumstances, various physical and mental disorders, not revealed by a medical assessment ashore, may develop unnoticed, often resulting in sudden health deterioration, which requires vessels to divert from their original routes – a rather expensive operation, both in terms of financial expenses and environmental pollution.  

The Solution:  

To address this challenge, self-management approaches together with objective measurements of the physical activity patterns of mariners, as well as continuous monitoring of multiple body indicators, are crucial for the assessment of physical health in the maritime population under unstable and constrained living conditions. To this end,  BlueHealthPass project aims to extend the existing eHealthPass platform and tailor it to the healthcare needs of the maritime sector. The envisioned solution will create a unified digital healthcare ecosystem, bringing together multiple stakeholders (seafarers, maritime companies, Health Care Professionals in domestic and foreign countries, insurance companies,  etc.). On the one hand, maritime and offshore workers will be able to send their live health-related measurements in an automated manner, share personal health records (PHRs), receive personalised healthcare recommendations and treatment plans, interact with other users, etc. The received medical advice will be generated by an intelligent machine learning analytics engine, which will be able to detect health deterioration patterns, based on live measurements and historical records. On the other hand, HealthCare Professionals (HCPs) at various domestic and foreign institutions, upon users’ consent, will have access to PHRs and measurements, based on which personalised recommendations and tailor plans will be applied. The information exchange will be underpinned by international healthcare data representation formats, which is specifically important given that emergency situations at sea often happen in international waters.  

The Impact:  

• Financial: By reducing the number of medical emergencies at sea, BlueHealthPass will also reduce the number of expensive vessel deviations and helicopter evacuations. 
• Social: By offering timely healthcare and lifestyle recommendations to seafarers, as well as providing HCPs in domestic and foreign countries with access to PHRs, BlueHealthPass will contribute to better well-being and medical treatment of maritime workers; 
• Environmental: By reducing the number of vessel deviations and helicopter evacuations, BlueHealthPass will also reduce the amount of emitted water and air pollutants.  

Supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants Greece 2014-2021, in the frame of the “Business Innovation Greece” programme

 “Business Innovation Greece” programme

Χρηματοδοτούμενο από την Ισλανδία, το Λιχτενστάιν και τη Νορβηγία μέσω του Χρηματοδοτικού Μηχανισμού του Ευρωπαϊκού Οικονομικού Χώρου (ΕΟΧ) για την περίοδο 2014-2021, στο πλαίσιο του Προγράμματος “Business Innovation Greece”