[Healthcare for migrants on the high seas. The case of the operation EUNAVFOR MED "Sophia".] / El caso de la operación EUNAVFOR MED "Sophia".

Since 2015, the Spanish Navy participates in the Operation EUNAVFOR MED Sophia, a naval operation of the European Union against the trafficking of human beings in the Mediterranean in which our ships carry out an important humanitarian work in the rescue and assistance of migrants on the sea. The attention and health care of these migrants lies mainly in the military Health Group and it is based on a series of principles and procedures among which the application of a triage adapted to the special conditions of rescue and assistance on the sea and in the diagnosis and treatment of various pathologies present among migrants. In this context, a series of epidemiological data is provided, especially the most frequent pathologies attended by rescued migrants and emphasizing the importance of adopting a series of measures to prevent the transmission of infectious pathologies that are rare or already eradicated in our country.

Desde 2015, la Armada española participa en la operación EUNAVFOR MED Sophia, una operación naval de la Unión Europea contra el tráfico de seres humanos en el Mediterráneo, en la que nuestros buques realizan una importante labor humanitaria en el rescate y asistencia de migrantes en la mar. La atención y asistencia sanitaria de estos migrantes recae principalmente en el Grupo de Sanidad militar, y se basa en una serie de principios y procedimientos entre los que destacan la aplicación de un triaje adaptado a las especiales condiciones del rescate y asistencia en alta mar, así como en el diagnóstico y tratamiento de diversas patologías presentes entre los migrantes. En este sentido, este trabajo proporciona una serie de datos epidemiológicos, incidiendo en las patologías más frecuentes entre los migrantes rescatados, y destacando la importancia de la adopción de una serie de medidas para prevenir la transmisión de patologías infecciosas poco frecuentes o ya erradicadas en nuestro país.

Past, present, and future perspectives of telemedical assistance at sea: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Telemedicine is an effective technology for evaluating, diagnosing, treating, and providing health care services for remote populations, including seafarers, in case of diseases or accidents on board. Delivery of telemedicine in a maritime environment is not an easy task and, in general, differs from what can be done onshore. The aim of this review is to provides an overview of Telemedical Maritime Assistance Services (TMAS) in Europe by describing the previous and current status in terms of communication technologies as well as the nature of services rendered at sea. Secondly, to discuss the areas needing improvement and future directions to improve the quality of offshore telemedicine services. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Different databases, including PubMed (Medline), Google Scholar, Scopus, and journal of International Maritime Health, were searched between August 1 and September 15, 2019. Articles only published from 1969 to 2019 were considered. Relevant articles were selected by reviewing keywords, titles, and abstracts initially based on our inclusion and exclusion criteria. We critically reviewed the full-text articles included in this review. Information on the means of communication, telemedicine services, years of publication, and the name of the first author was extracted from selected studies. The quality of the selected studies was assessed using the criteria of the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. RESULTS: Initially, 135 articles were identified through searching various databases by using keywords, abstracts, and titles. After removing the duplicates, 121 articles remained. Then we performed an independent article assessment and selection based on the selection criteria, which removed an additional 61 studies, leaving 60 papers. Finally, 27 full-text papers left, and we critically reviewed it. In 27 accepted articles, email and telephone were used most often and accounted for 30% (17/57) and 28% (16/57) of all communication links, respectively. Teleconsultation was the most used telemedicine service on board and represented 58.6% (17/29) of accepted papers. CONCLUSIONS: Email and telephone were the principal means of TMAS doctors to provide medical advice as well as assistance for patients at sea. Despite the potential offered by technological progress, there are still many limitations to the provision of adequate medical care at sea. The modernisation of telemedicine services will help decrease the gap in healthcare delivery at sea.

Telemedical assistance at sea in the time of COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the aetiological factor of COVID-19 infection, poses problems in providing medical assistance at sea. Ships are in an isolated environment, and most of the merchant ships do not carry medical personnel or medical supplies. Telemedicine offers a real possibility to provide reasonable quality medical assistance to seagoing vessels. The fact that ships may touch ports in affected areas, the difficulties for seafarers to be assisted ashore due to quarantine measures and the crews' lack of turnover make medical assistance at sea difficult. This study has compared maritime telemedical assistance data before and during the COVID-19 pandemic to propose prevention measures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was based on the data from medical records of Centro Internazionale Radio Medico (C.I.R.M.) database of seafarers assisted from January 1 to June 30, in the years 2017-2020. The data were collected separately for each year. Age, sex, rank, and pathologies affecting the assisted seafarers were considered. Common signs of COVID-19 infection such as fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, and other respiratory symptoms were analysed. RESULTS: From January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2019, C.I.R.M. assisted 15,888 patients on board ships. During the first 6 months of the years under evaluation, C.I.R.M. assisted 2,419 patients in 2017, 2,444 patients in 2018, 2,694 patients in 2019, and 3,924 in 2020. The number of assisted cases almost doubled in the first 6 months (from January to June) of 2020 compared to the same period of the previous years. Gastrointestinal disorders, injuries/traumas, and dermatological pathologies were the first, second, and third most often reported causes of illness on board over the 4-year study period. A higher number of seafarers with fever, cough, sore throat, and shortness of breath were assisted during the COVID-19 pandemic than before the coronavirus outbreak. Medical requests for fever increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the same period from 2017 to 2019. CONCLUSIONS: The requests for medical advice for fever, sore throat, and shortness of breath were significantly more common during the coronavirus epidemic. Close follow-up, regular health education on preventing coronavirus transmission, personal protective equipment, adequate environmental hygiene, and applying other standard precautions could help minimise the risk factors for the spread of COVID-19.

Dental emergencies at sea: A study in the French maritime TeleMedical Assistance Service.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the study was to assess the frequency, features and management of dental emergencies at sea in France. METHODS: A descriptive study was carried out by retrospectively examining medical records of patients who were assisted by the French maritime TeleMedical Assistance Service (TMAS) from 2012 to 2016. Data were ranked in different categories: socio-demographic data, diagnosis, prescription, and monitoring or treatment prescribed. RESULTS: The TMAS recorded 9122 medical files for all medical emergencies. Among these medical records 135 concerned oral diseases. The main causes for dental emergencies are dental abscess (51.8%), tooth decay (33.3%), and dental fracture (8.9%). Even where teledentistry is validated for remote screening and oral lesion diagnosis, management of dental emergencies mostly requires a dental procedure. On board, without special equipment and/or specifically trained healthcare workers, this management often results in the prescription of medication. DISCUSSION: The International Medical Guide for Ships published by the World Health Organization could be updated to suit the latest recommendations of dental emergency management. This could facilitate the addition of a medical act to dental management, resulting in more effective treatment. Furthermore, simple and specific equipment could be added to the medical supplies.

Navy Medicine Introduces Value-Based Health Care.

In 2016 the newly appointed surgeon general of the Navy launched a value-based health care pilot project at Naval Hospital Jacksonville to explore whether multidisciplinary care teams (known as integrated practice units, or IPUs) and measurement of outcomes could improve the readiness of active duty personnel and lower the cost of delivering care to them, their dependents, and local retirees. This article describes the formation of the project's leadership structure, the selection of four conditions to be treated (low back pain, osteoarthritis, diabetes, and high-risk pregnancy), the creation of the care team for each condition, outcomes and costs measured, and the near-term changes in outcomes during the twelve-month pilot period. Patient outcomes improved for three of the four conditions. We describe factors that contributed to the project's success. After the pilot concluded, the Navy combined the back pain and osteoarthritis IPUs into a single musculoskeletal clinical unit and established a similar IPU at another naval hospital and its clinics. The diabetes IPU was continued, but the high-risk pregnancy IPU was not. We offer several observations on the elements that were key to the success of the project, explore challenges and opportunities, and suggest that the pilot described here could be taken to greater scale in the Military Health System and elsewhere.

Capacidades sanitarias del buque de proyección estratégica L-61 Juan Carlos I. Lecciones médicas identificadas tras las maniobras FLOTEX-17 / Health capacity of the strategic projection warship Juan Carlos I. Medical lessons identified after the FLOTEX-17 maneouvers

El Buque de Proyección Estratégica L-61 Juan Carlos I (L-61 JC I) es el buque de mayores dimensiones que ha tenido la Armada española en toda su historia. Puede desarrollar cuatro perfiles de misión: anfibio, portaviones, transporte estratégico y ayuda humanitaria. En todos ellos su capacidad sanitaria Role 2 juega un papel determinante gracias a las importantes prestaciones médicas con las que cuenta el buque. Las maniobras FLOTEX-17 realizadas en el Mar Mediterráneo en junio de 2017 en las que participaron 29 buques y más de 3500 efectivos fue la primera vez que embarcó un Role 2 en el L-61 JC I. El objetivo de este artículo es describir las características técnicas y sanitarias del buque, las lecciones identificadas obtenidas tras las maniobras navales y analizar las semejanzas y diferencias de buques similares de marinas de guerra aliadas

Strategic Projection Ship L-61 Juan Carlos I (L-61 JC I) is the largest ship that the Spanish Navy has had in its history. This warship can develop four mission profiles: amphibian, aircraft carrier, strategic transport and humanitarian aid. In all of them, Role 2 medical capacity and capability plays a decisive role thanks to the important medical benefits available in the ship. FLOTEX-17 maneuvers carried out in the Mediterranean Sea in June 2017 with the participation of 29 warships and more than 3,500 navy members was the first time that a Role 2 was shipped in the L-61 JC I. The purpose of this article is to describe warship technical and medical characteristics, lessons identified after the naval maneuvers and analyze the similarities and differences of similar warships of allied navies

Establishment of the International Maritime Health Foundation: the next step in scientific publishing in maritime health.

The Bulletin of the Institute of Maritime and Tropical Medicine (IMTM) was published first time in 1948 as a preliminary publication. Since then it has developed and from 1999 it is known as International Maritime Health (IMH). Initially it was published by the Institute of Maritime and Tropical Medicine (IMTM) in Gdynia. From 2009 it was published by the Polish Society of Maritime, Tropical and Travel Medicine (PSMTTM) in cooperation with the International Maritime Health Association (IMHA) and the Norwegian Centre for Maritime Medicine (NCMM), later the Norwegian Centre for Maritime and Diving Medicine (NCMDM) at the Department of Occupational Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen. After a couple of years of planning and discussions on how to take the journal forward, the International Maritime Health Foundation (IMHF) was established under Polish Law, 21st June 2018. This article discusses the process from the very beginning of the journal, until the establishment of the IMHF as well as the foundation's objectives and way forward.

Human factors in contingency operations.

The UK Defence Medical Services are currently supporting contingency operations following a period of intensive activity in relatively mature trauma systems in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the key lessons identified, human factors or non-technical skills played an important role in the improvement of patient care. This article describes the importance of human factors on Role 2 Afloat, one of the Royal Navy's maritime contingency capabilities, and illustrates how they are vital to ensuring that correct decisions are made for patient care in a timely manner. Teamwork and communication are particularly important to ensure that limited resources such as blood products and other consumables are best used and that patients are evacuated promptly, allowing the facility to accept further casualties and therefore maintain operational capability. These ideas may be transferred to any small specialist team given a particular role to perform.

Establishing and maintaining a robust Role 2 Afloat organisation within the Royal Naval Medical Services.

In 2009, the Royal Navy (RN) reconfigured the Role 2 maritime medical treatment capability, the Role 2 Afloat (R2A). This capability is now firmly established on a number of platforms in the fleet and was recently externally validated on RFA MOUNTS BAY prior to completion of an operational deployment supporting contingency operations in the Mediterranean. This article outlines the future challenges for R2A and offers suggestions on how to maintain a robust R2A organisation within the Royal Naval Medical Service (RNMS).

The Role 2 Afloat custodian.

The Role 2 Afloat (R2A) capability is now firmly established on several maritime platforms using the 370 Module (afloat) equipment. This year has seen the appointment on board ships that support R2A of a new full-time role, the Medical Module Manager (MMM), who is responsible for the equipment on board. This article outlines the new role.

The Maritime Medical Emergency Response Team: what do we really need?

Since 2006, the Defence Medical Services (DMS) pre-hospital care focus has been the Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT), which has enabled the projection of Damage Control Resuscitation (DCR) to the point of wounding as part of consultant- delivered care. Now in a period of contingency operations, the Royal Navy (RN)'s Role 2 medical capability, Role 2 Afloat (R2A) delivers DCR (including surgery) on a maritime platform. This article will focus on the development of the Maritime MERT component of R2A (termed Maritime In Transit Care (MITC) in Maritime Medical Doctrine) and will discuss the requirements based on experience of and preparation for an operation in 2016. Also discussed are the individual competencies and training required to be part of the Maritime MERT; it is hoped that this will simulate debate around this evolving team.

Consideration of the medical care and biomedical support of women and children on Role 2 Afloat maritime contingency operations.

The Royal Navy's Role 2 Afloat (R2A) capability has now been firmly established in support of United Kingdom (UK) troops on contingency operations such as humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations. This article reviews the current capability of R2A to deliver medical care to children and pregnant women, including the challenges facing the deployed Biomedical Scientist (BMS).

The role of the operating department practitioner on board Role 2 Afloat.

The Role 2 Afloat (R2A) is the Royal Navy (RN)'s Damage Control Resuscitation (DCR), including Damage Control Surgery, capability at sea. There are currently three operating department practitioners (ODP) in the deployed team. This article describes the role of the ODP in this team and the training which is required to fulfil this role.

Role 1 Enhanced: a new paradigm in humanitarian operations.

Operation BUCKTAIL is the UK contribution to migrant surveillance and reconnaissance in the Aegean Sea. This paper describes two different and novel medical configurations which deployed in early 2016 to this Area of Operations (AO). Casualties in this situation would be treated under the Convention of Safety Of Life At Sea, a humanitarian role which may be less familiar to some of the Defence Medical Services. Casualty management is discussed and the composition of medical teams examined.

Debriefing of the medical team after emergencies on cruise ships.

Done to improve safety and patient outcome but not to lay blame, debriefings on cruise ships should preferably be conducted as standard practice in the medical facility immediately after all critical events aboard. The key questions to be asked are: What went well, what could have gone better and what must participants do to improve care? Post-debriefing the ship's doctor might have to deal with team members' mental stress resulting both from the event and from debriefing it. Required by most cruise companies, standardised advanced life support courses teach effective high-performance team dynamics. They provide the multinational medical staff with a clearer understanding of the rescue sequence, which again will reduce the risk of mistakes and simplify post-event debriefings. Their systematic approach to the chain of survival is also helpful for post-event debriefings if something went wrong.

Overall comparative analysis of management and outcomes of cardiac cases reported on board merchant ships.

BACKGROUND: Telemedical assistance has always been the cornerstone of medical care on board. Significant technological progress has provided improved scientific tools and equipment for high-quality communication and prompt management of either minor incidents or major emergencies on board. Med Solutions International is a medical management company, offering services exclusively to the maritime industry. Registered vessels contact the medical team and healthcare professionals provide immediate guidelines for onboard management as well as necessary action thereafter, i.e. examination ashore or urgent medical evacuation. Since cardiac conditions or diseases are potentially the most dangerous when traveling at sea, it is of major importance to analyse and evaluate the overall management and outcomes of cases reporting symptoms of possible heart disease so as to improve telemedical assistance services in future. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included cases reporting cardiac symptoms from 5 major shipping companies during the year 2016. Data was collected from telecommunication, emails and seafarers' final medical reports. A descriptive analysis of overall management and outcomes was performed. RESULTS: The study showed that the number of confirmed cardiovascular cases on board was very low. Among 551 total cases and 44 cases with reported cardiac symptoms there was only one heart attack, one pulmonary oedema and one suspected myocarditis. In the majority of cases, chest pain was musculoskeletal or due to respiratory infection. Symptoms resulting from issues such as stress or anxiety often present as potential cardiac conditions. Stress may also amplify the severity of symptoms. Language barriers between the seafarer, the master and the doctor often make communication very difficult. CONCLUSIONS: According to our findings there are grounds to intensify the prevention process through more efficient pre-employment medical examinations and improve management on board through more intensive training. Communication problems often complicate medical management on board. Effective communication and knowledge of patient's medical history and risk profile is very important to reviewing physician. Effective diagnosis depends on accurate and objective description of symptoms and clinical condition.

Eighty years of CIRM. A journey of commitment and dedication in providing maritime medical assistance.

BACKGROUND: A review of activities of Centro Internazionale Radio Medico (International Radio Medical Centre, CIRM) from its foundation in 1935 until its 80th anniversary in 2015 was accomplished. CIRM was founded in 1935 to provide medical assistance via radio to ships with no doctor on board and other distant patients who cannot be reached by a doctor. In 1950 CIRM was established as a non-profit-making foundation and has benefited since 1957 from an annual contribution from the Italian government. METHODS: Review of CIRM case histories and other published material from 1935 to 2015 and presenting them in a scientific yet simplified manner through the use of basic mathematical analysis. All the data was collected from CIRM's official archives in Rome. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The results achieved by the Centre over 80 years include medical assistance to 81,016 patients on board ships (as well as on small islands and aircraft), with more than 500,000 medical messages received and transmitted. CIRM from its inception was organised into a medical service, a telecommunications service and a studies section. In 2002 the Centre was recognised as the Italian Telemedical Maritime Assistance Service (TMAS). In the 2010 the Centre was reorganised as a structure articulated in 4 departments, namely maritime telemedicine, telecommunication, research and occupational medicine. This was achieved to cover the different activities related to comprehensive health protection of seafarers. The 24-h continuous medical service is provided by doctors at the CIRM headquarters. The doctor on duty gives instructions for managing the case and continues to follow the patient with subsequent appointments until recovery or landing. In case of emergencies CIRM co-ordinates the transfer of patients assisted on board ships to a hospital ashore. CIRM has developed innovative approaches for the treatment of diseases and accidents on board of seagoing vessels by introducing standard telemedicine equipment on board ships, allowing the transmission of biomedical data from ships to the Centre. These new solutions are aimed at bringing a significant improvement of medical care for seafarers.