Telemedicine Tools Expand For Deployed Contractors.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin
• Position: Global Defense

One company is partnering with a leading university hospital to bring new telemedicine options to contractors working in high-threat areas.

SOSi International, a Reston, Virginia-based government services integrator, recently announced that it would be working with George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates to provide advanced telemedicine to deployed personnel, said Frank Helmick, vice president for SOSi's mission solutions group.

The company currently operates medical facilities in countries throughout the Middle East where U.S. defense contractors can send their overseas employees for treatment. Through the partnership, SOSi doctors will be able to connect with U.S.-based physicians in real time to get advice if needed, he said.

"[We] are providing a very unique capability to austere medical support with our telemedicine capability," he said. It "provides us access to an operations center manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year by ... medical professionals that can help us handle any type of emergency that our current providers on the ground need assistance with."

Tom Berger, medical support services director, said over the past two years the company has provided care for 3,000 patients in...