A pilot project was launched in July 2007 on using telemedicine to support collaboration between our occupational health service on land and nursing staff on the offshore installations we operate.
Being pursued as part of adopting integrated operation (IO), such solutions will help to improve and increase the exchange of information between these two groups.
Our occupational health teams at Sandsli outside Bergen, Stjørdal near Trondheim and Forus West in Stavanger are participating in the pilot.
Offshore participants embrace nursing personnel on the Statfjord C, Gullfaks A, Snorre B and Visund platforms in the North Sea, and on Heidrun in the Norwegian Sea.
The project is being pursued in cooperation with the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine at the University Hospital of North Norway in Tromsø.
Real-time data transfer and videoconferencing are the technologies which allow telemedicine to be used by the occupational health service.
Specialists on land receive the same information as nursing staff on the installations through real-time transmission of sound and picture.
This method will make it possible to provide accurate and rapid treatment through improved communication and professional collaboration between sea and shore.
A risk analysis was carried out ahead of the pilot project to deal with such issues as confidentiality, privacy protection and communication.
In addition, computer security measures had to be analysed to safeguard patient data in an appropriate way when adopting the telemedicine approach.
Telemedicine can be used by the offshore occupational health service to:
- improve and tighten collaboration between each installation and the land organisation
- improve information and ensure that the right data reach several recipients at the same time
- ensure closer dialogue between sea and shore
- reduce travel related to planning for activities and projects
- support education and guidance in medicine, occupational hygiene, ergonomics and so forth.
