Telemedicine firm looks to expand its reach,
Telemedicine firm looks for international endorsement
Susan Helliwell formed Praxes Medical Group, shortly after responding to an ad in her local newspaper. The ad, placed by an oil and gas consortium, was for emergency physicians willing to fly to rigs off the Nova Scotia coast to treat injured or ill patients and escort them back to shore for further treatment.
“I’m married to an emergency doctor so I said, ‘ We could do this,’ ” Ms. Helliwell, an engineer, recalled.
That was in 1997. Now, Nova Scotia doctors no longer fly to offshore rigs (they have been replaced by flight paramedics and nurses). Yet, Halifax-based Praxes still counts oil and gas companies among its many clients, including Encana and SBM Offshore.
Ms. Helliwell, chief executive of Praxes, turned her initial offshore contract into a growing telemedicine business — one recently chosen to provide medical care to sailors taking part in the 2013/14 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.
Praxes’ clients are predominantly companies and organizations with workers in locations far beyond the reach of traditional health care. The company’s emergency physicians provide advice and treatment instructions via telephone to patients in the field.
Mining companies, the Canadian Coast Guard, climbers on Mount Everest and the Canadian navy are all clients.
A team of 20 emergency doctors works part- time with Praxes in addition to their duties in Canadian emergency rooms. At any given time, three doctors are on call ready to assist farflung patients in English or French.
Organizing the doctors’ schedules, to ensure constant coverage, was at first a logistical challenge. That task, along with many others, is now managed through the company’s in-house software, EMwerx. Dispatchers use the software to record initial details about a patient’s condition and generate electronic patient records that can be sent to a hospital should the patient require more care.
However, the goal is to treat patients from a distance. “We’re trying to help corporate clients manage the health of their workforce and avoid costly medical transports,” said Ms. Helliwell, noting a medical evacuation can cost up to $100,000, depending on the distance. “We’re trying to help them manage their risk, and save money.”
One corporate client Clearwater, the east coast seafood giant, said before using Praxes, captains seeking medical help were often connected to a doctor in an emergency room. The doctor — focused on many patients in the ER — would often suggest the ship come back to shore. “That incurs great expense,” said Becky Langille, a crew health and safety co-ordinator at Clearwater. “You’re talking tens of thousands of dollars for a vessel to have to turn around and come back.”
Clearwater signed on with Praxes eight years ago and the service is now available to its 350 crew members on five of its ships, which stay out at sea for up to a month at a time. Ms. Langille said the fleet places a half-dozen calls to Praxes each month, involving everything from infections and cuts to indigestion and seasickness. In most cases, the ailment can be dealt with remotely.
There’s even a specially labelled drug kit on board each vessel, which the boat’s captain can administer with the help of a Praxes doctor. “It’s an easy-to-use, well understood system,” Ms. Langille said from Lunenburg, N.S. The result: a noticeable reduction in vessel diversions.
Ms. Helliwell is working to expand her company’s reach across Canada, including with oil and gas and mining companies working in the far north. “There isn’t a lot of medical care up there,” she said. “If you’re going to send a lot of people to really remote areas, they need as much support as they can get.”
She’s hoping Praxes’ involvement with the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race will aid that expansion effort and boost the company’s international reputation.
The 40,000- mile race, which starts Sept. 1 in London, will involve 12 clipper ships sailing around the world over 10 months with 650 sailors aboard. “Any time they need medical advice they can call us — even when way off in the middle of nowhere,” Ms. Helliwell said.
“Our intention was to use it as a third-party endorsement to say, ‘Look, we can provide support for people in the most remote, most hostile areas in the world. So we can provide support for your Canadian operation,’ ” she said.
“We’re hoping it will lead to more business.”