MedAire has returned to its roots providing remote medical solutions, on-board medical equipment and crew education in emergency medical procedures, serving a core market in the aviation and maritime industries.
As the U.S.-based company integrated with its new parent group International SOS (ISOS), there has been learning curve in which the two companies spent time understanding each other’s clients and markets and how to make the most efficient use of the products and resources of each. A barrier to that effort was eliminated last fall when MedAire (Booth No. 360) was de-listed from the Australian Stock Exchange, allowing a more complete sharing of information. It was a move that made MedAire founder and chairman Joan Sullivan Garrett and ISOS the two largest shareholders in the company, and allowed the elimination of considerable costs associated with the stock listing.
At the same time, Grant Jeffery was hired to take over as CEO, a move that allowed Garrett to serve in various leadership roles, act as company spokesperson, and to engage in the research-and-development of new products. While Garrett provides vision and strategic direction, Jeffrey operates in the traditional CEO role of managing the daily MedAire operation, as well as growth strategies and plans for worldwide expansion.
The company is again promoting its MedLink remote medical emergency program and its core capabilities of providing remote medical assistance to the aviation and maritime industries. At the same time, according to Garrett, the continued association with ISOS allows it to leverage a substantial international presence, which she and the board believe will have a positive impact on clients traveling to more distant locales.
The team of Garrett and Jeffery is already beginning to bear fruit. Under the direction of Jeffrey, MedAire is seeking to improve its business aviation service delivery in the following ways:
• Establishing another Global Response Center (GRC) in Singapore on April 1, in addition to the 24-hour hospital-based MedLink center and the Tempe, Arizona-based GRC.
• Leveraging the ISOS’s global assistance network of 44,000 providers for those who become ill or injured and need referral to a doctor, dentist or other medical specialist.
• Giving MedAire clients access to the 28 ISOS clinics in countries where medical care is inadequate.
• Gaining access to combined security and medical services as a result of ISOS’s joint venture with Control Risk, an independent specialist risk consultancy with 27 offices on five continents.
• Improved evacuation assistance, using ISOS’s worldwide air ambulance fleet and its air evacuation contacts.
• Increasing access to international medical knowledge through ISOS’s presence in 70 countries, including 800 doctors.
Looking ahead, MedAire plans to unveil an improved MedAire.com communication portal for clients that will allow them to:
• upload emergency records and get e-mails notifying them when inoculations are due;
• research and download medical and travel information in more than 200 countries; and
• notify MedAire of an upcoming trip so it can establish a case number to facilitate procedures should a medical emergency occur.
