For years, Luxembourg Government’s SATMED project has helped various NGOS by giving healthcare professionals access to a dedicated e-Health software via SES’s satellite service. Thanks to the unparalleled reach of the satellites, the platform can be utilised even in remote locations, where no other means of connectivity are possible to deploy. Friendship NGO serves two floating hospitals off the remote islands of Bangladesh and a hospital on-land. Patient data is sent from the Friendship Central server to the National Healthcare Database via satellite. The same connectivity also helps reinforce the triage system, which quickly identifies and refers patients to the dedicated governmental COVID-19 centres. Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, the hospitals have served more than 10,000 patients. SATMED is also utilised by the Serabu Hospital in Sierra Leone that is supported by the German Doctors NGO and is responsible for providing care to thousands of patients. The hospital is located in a remote region and SATMED constitutes its only connection to the outside world. Drawing from its experience fighting Ebola in 2014, the hospital also expanded the existing triage system and set up information exchange with the dedicated government COVID-19 centres.
SATMED is an e-Health cloud-based platform that allows real-time situational assessment and data exchange with other hospitals both in the country and abroad. It also supports provision of various critical services to the population. This existing solution has become increasingly important and necessary during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The monitoring and tracking of the spread of COVID-19 is key for identifying disease hot spots, management of resources and access to information. The software platform enables collection and presentation of epidemiological information with real-time visualization in a dashboard.

https://satmed.com

• Benin
• Bangladesh
• Eritrea
• Niger
• Philippines
• Sierra Leone

• Youth
• Women
• non-governmental organisations that are providers of healthcare, education or health management services, governmental organisations that support regional development programs and humanitarian operations, institutes such as medical universities, hospitals and health management institutions.

SATMED has been in operation since 2014 and has cooperated with several partners incl. NGOs Friendship, German Doctors E.V., CURE International, ARCHEMED, GIZ Guinea, eMC, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. SATMED has been installed in hospitals, remote medical centres and hospital ships in multiple locations around the world. All e-health applications integrated within the platform are license free. The SATMED interface is easy and intuitive to use, and all applications are accessible by a single sign on. With a software as a service (SaaS) licensing and delivery/distribution model the platform is immediately accessible from any device with an Internet connection and a web browser. Last but not least, cloud data storage capabilities are provided (hosted in Luxembourg), compliant with data protection regulations. The SATMED software can be used anywhere, subject to connectivity access; in the areas with no connectivity, satellite service needs to be put in place – therefore making it possible to replicate virtually in any location thanks to the global reach of SES’s satellites.

SATMED is a project of the Government of Luxembourg, aimed at helping healthcare providers make better use of information technology and mobile health solutions everywhere it is needed. It has been implemented and operated by SES, the leader in global content connectivity solutions based in Luxembourg. The owner of the platform is the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Luxembourg and specifically the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs. In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Government of Luxembourg made access to the SATMED platform available free of charge for healthcare professionals’ community of selected health organisations to fight the pandemic.

As a project that aims at helping healthcare providers make better use of information technology and mobile health solutions everywhere as it is needed, the project promotes the following WSIS values: AL C1. The role of governments and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development | AL C2. Information and communication infrastructure | AL C3. Access to information and knowledge | AL C4. Capacity building | AL C7. ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life — E-learning | AL C7. ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life — E-health | AL C11. International and regional cooperation.