International SOS assistance provider MedAire (Booth 1357) is rolling out a Crew Check security feature that provides real-time communications and offers assistance in times of heightened alerts. Announced this week at NBAA-BACE, Crew Check is an add-on to the MedAire360 service, which applies a holistic approach to travel risk management and embraces preflight intelligence, en route emergency assistance, and away-from-home security, medical, and safety support.
Crew Check is designed to help operators quickly understand risk exposure by providing alerts with advice. With the service, MedAire can reach out to crews with information.
“The Crew Check feature will identify threats that may affect your crew anywhere in the world in a timely manner and add a layer of security that could be vital in a crisis,” said Bill Dolny, CEO of MedAire Worldwide.
Dolny explained that MedAire created Crew Check to help flight departments not only learn of alerts and risks but ensure that their traveling personnel are aware of them. “When we send out an alert because something is happening in the world and you may have a crewmember [traveling], the question is, 'Are they OK, and do they need anything?' We’ve created Crew Check to efficiently let you ask that question to the crew, share what's going on, and get a quick answer back,” Dolny explained.
He added that it also helps in cases where multiple communications are necessary. As an example, he said a flight department could have three people in a place of civil unrest and two may check in. Crew Check will assist the flight department in tracking down the third person and easing concerns, Dolny said. Characterizing Crew Check as “client-led,” he said the service was shaped with the assistance of a couple of large flight departments.
MedAire has helped operators through numerous crises. “We've had almost every major kind of news blast," Dolny said. "We end up needing to help some business operators in those cases. Sometimes, we've had to actually assist in getting [them] out."
Crew Check is among an expanded suite of medical and security services that MedAire has undertaken to provide. It is developing a catalog of application program interfaces (API) that can integrate with a flight department’s systems. These interfaces will provide access to MedAire’s medical and security information.
Collins Aerospace has signed on as a partner, becoming the first company to enable ArincDirect subscribers to access MedAire Covid-19 risk and restriction data. “The partnership with Collins is the first example of the next evolution of our service,” Dolny said. “For over 35 years, our content and expert advice have been available to clients 24/7 through our portal and app or by calling our assistance centers. Today, with Collins, we are connecting our clients with unparalleled content by directly integrating with tools they already use to plan and support their operations.”
Dolny emphasized the importance of extending its reach through strong partnerships: “We spent a lot of time trying to find the right partners, ones that have unique products we think would be really valuable to our customers.” He pointed to MedAire's recent alliance with a relatively young company, Bond, to provide assistance in cases where people may feel unsafe but haven’t quite reached the point of a full emergency. “The Bond product is phenomenal,” Dolny said.
In this case, the product was not developed in response to a situation in a foreign country, he maintained. “It’s really about everyday life. You're a pilot or flight tenant and you get in an Uber and you're just uncomfortable.” Unveiled in May, the Bond product provides reassurance and assistance in assessing a situation and offers help, including reaching out to emergency services when necessary. “What Bond does is very slick,” Dolny said, providing a digital interface that MedAire has integrated to enable a person to “tap a button” and know someone is with them.
Dolny said these services—and the development of the company's MedAire360 portal, which serves as a central repository for its intelligence and services—come as travel has changed since the onset of the pandemic.
“It’s been a crazy couple of years,” he said, remarking that people are “getting out there and traveling internationally again, which is great.” However, as Covid has eased, MedAire has found that “our clients are really looking at us for help on security preparation. They're going to some of these locations that they used to think they knew, but now they realize they need to reassess everything. The safety and security aspect of traveling internationally is so uncertain right now.”
That is where MedAire is spending a lot of time, according to Dolny.
