Together We Stand

[ 113 ] Luxembourg’s SATMED programme brings e-health to remote areas Max Lamesch, Coordinator of Humanitarian Action, Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg S ATMED is a telemedicine project designed to build on existing expertise in the health and innovation sectors with the aim of generating e-health appli- cations in remote areas. It was initially designed for development contexts, where its services have added value for the health sector in remote areas that often lack communication facilities. SATMED can, however, also be deployed in humanitarian crises, as it was during the Ebola epidemic. The system is funded by the Luxembourg Government and has been conceived by SES, the world-leading satellite fleet owner and operator based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg, together with e-Medical Communication, based in Berlin, which specializes in telemedicine. It is operated locally by partners such as German Doctors, Friendship International, Fondation Follereau Luxembourg (FFL), Archemed and Cure. SATMED is about improving access to health care and simplifying the use of medical software and applications anywhere in the world. The software platform includes a comprehensive range of medical applications including health records for hospitals, e-learning applications to help train the trainers, consultancy, cloud computing and hosting services. SATMED is an extension of and has built on the exper- tise gained from emergency.lu technology. Emergency.lu is a multilayer platform consisting of satellite infrastructure, communication services and satellite ground terminals for long-term as well as rapid deployment. Since 2012, emer- gency.lu has been addressing the challenge of worldwide rapid response capacity and preparedness for humanitarian emergencies by providing a solution to fill the communica- tion gap in the first hours and days after a large-scale disaster. SATMED uses emergency.lu satellite connectivity to link hospitals and remote medical posts to a unique network. Health and innovation have long been among the priorities of the Government of Luxembourg in its development and humanitarian aid policies. In 2013, the Government decided to invest in a state-of-the-art telemedicine solution by pooling SATMED is about improving access to health care and simplifying the use of medical software and applications anywhere in the world SATMED enables remote consultations and connects medical workers in remote locations with expertise across the world Image: SES Image: SES T ogether W e S tand