Seafarers More Likely to ‘Express What’s Really Going On’ Thanks to VIKAND’s Crew Welfare Technology

Seafarers More Likely to ‘Express What’s Really Going On’ Thanks to VIKAND’s Crew Welfare Technology

December, 19, 2024 - A global leader in maritime healthcare and wellbeing solutions, VIKAND, says the number of seafarers’ who are ‘opening-up’ and talking about their mental health will increase, due to its first-of-a-kind, wellness data-collection tool.

Presenting at the recent International Maritime Human Factors Symposium, Ronald Spithout, VIKAND’s OneHealth managing director, highlighted the importance of ‘Crew Asset Management’ and real time data gathering technology to support seafarers’ welfare.

Developed by Danish tech company Scoutbase, the solution encourages and enables seafarers to ‘open up’ and express themselves anonymously. The solution tracks important data through ‘welfare pulse sampling’ or ‘nudging,’ where questions are generated to gauge how someone is feeling.

Depending on their response, further questions are generated, creating a profile. Answers that are concerning can result in a voluntary call with a mental health professional. This friendly way of questioning has resulted in engagement levels of over 80%, while also allowing for earlier interventions of help.

Ronald Spithout, OneHealth’s managing director said: “The shift to digitalization in maritime has massively impacted on how we can support our seafarers and protect a ships greatest asset, which is its people. By capturing and monitoring wellness and health information in real time, we can provide seafarers with a wide range of medical advice and support unlike never before. This is a huge step forward.”

Yassin Askar, the co-founder of Scoutbase, said: “Using technology which automatically collects anonymous feedback from seafarers and shore-based personnel on safety and critical issues, will provide ship operators with insights from across their fleets which will help raise operational standards and safety. Looking after seafarers must be our number one priority.”

Several presentations took place at the IMO, which all focused on the issues of safety, wellbeing for seafarers. Speakers and experts from a range of maritime industry bodies, and organisations and educational establishments took part.

ABOUT VIKAND

At VIKAND, we specialize in providing comprehensive medical services and risk mitigation solutions tailored specifically for the maritime industry. With a dedicated global team of 1,500 medical professionals, all of whom have had years of experience at sea, we understand the unique challenges that arise onboard. Our experienced and committed teams manage more than 4,100 maritime medical encounters every single day.

With OneHealth by VIKAND, our mission is to proactively maintain the health, safety, and wellbeing of crew members and guests at sea using a preventive approach across a range of healthcare concerns, from communicable diseases to chronic illnesses, mental health concerns and more. OneHealth takes a diversified and holistic approach to protecting all onboard, inspired by our company’s deeply held values – we can because we care.

ABOUT SCOUTBASE

Our mission is to help organizations create better and safer workplaces by helping to identify what makes work difficult for people. Scoutbase collects feedback, automatically and continuously, directly from seafarers about their work and life at sea and displays this in real time.

In order to:

Empower your crew giving them a voice and draw on their experience
Get real-time insights on the health and wellbeing from across your fleet
Continuously learn, identify issues early and track impact

Scoutbase brings together years of experience in understanding and solving problems at sea and on shore. Our interdisciplinary team combines safety science, design thinking and technology to help improve work and life at sea.

www.scoutbase.com

RECENT ARTICLES