A happy crew is a healthy crew

摘要

Mens sana in corpore sano: when the Roman poet Juvenal drew up his list of what is to be desired in life, a sound mind in a sound body came top of his list. The risks to seafarers' health from being out at sea, many hours' sailing time away from urgent medical care, are well known. But in recent years, a growing body of research has focused on seafarers' mental health - everything from the effect on wakefulness of working watch shifts to the psychological impact of being out of contact with friends and loved-ones. Two new initiatives are looking at crew welfare from the viewpoint of physical and mental health. The first initiative is a commercial medical venture, a virtual surgery operated by doctors from the Leonard J Chabert Medical Center in Louisiana, USA, that claims to be "readily adoptable" by shipping although it has yet to land its first industry client. Worldwide Telemedicine uses technology to make medical care and expertise available anywhere it is needed. The telemedicine units claim to offer comprehensive medical care that reduces the need for costly emergency transport and that manages emergencies and injuries in real-time.