Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) has selected the eSeaCare Electronic Health Platform as their fleet-wide electronic health record system for ships of the Azamara Club Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, and the Royal Caribbean International brands, to include the two largest ships in the world, Royal Caribbean International’s Oasis of the Seas and her sister ship Allure of the Seas.

The eSeaCare Electronic Health Platform will serve as the software solution to connect and manage the health information for over 20,000 crew members and hundreds of thousands of guests amongst 40 ships traveling to over 420 destinations on all seven continents.

eSeaCare is the first solution of this magnitude in the maritime industry and is projected to save millions of dollars along with improving crew member care and the quality of the guest experience. The system will automate medical and organizational processes through one enterprise software platform that connects crew members, medical operations, onboard medical staff and shore side clinics. Supplementing the system’s clinical intelligence and robust functionality is a patent-pending technology that provides the capability for continuous synchronization of information across operations and the global fleet. This technology also provides onboard medical staff with the ability for continuous system operation despite the intermittent satellite connectivity commonly experienced while at sea. Royal Caribbean will also be leveraging the system’s features to aid with the intricate compliance requirements from various domestic and international agencies.

“We are very pleased that Royal Caribbean has chosen IOS as a partner to initiate this transformation in maritime medicine,” states IOS Health Systems President and CEO Andrew Carricarte. “The technology and processes we have employed to accomplish this will lead the way in establishing the standards for the entire maritime industry.”

IOS conducted extensive research, development and testing with various organizations and industry experts to culminate with the launch of the eSeaCare platform in 2010. Development on the eSeaCare platform began in 2008 after recognizing that the needs and demands of the maritime industry could not be met with current land-based systems. IOS combined their reputation for innovation, experience in healthcare and unique technology to establish itself as the leader and pioneer within the industry.

Dr. Art Diskin, Global Chief Medical Officer for Royal Caribbean, states, “We have been working on the EMR concept for cruise ship medicine for many years and are very excited about deploying an electronic medical record for our fleet. We see this as a critical tool in the development of quality cruise ship medicine and it will enable us to better meet the health care needs of our guests and crew.”