Global Warning System (GWS) plans a launch of a new mobile-based service for better emergency care when traveling

Global Warning System (GWS) starts a subsidiary, which will launch a smartphone app containing a database with quality rated hospitals all over the world. This functionality will also be integrated in the GWS Safeture service concept. GWS has identified a need for directing travelers to the best and closest emergency treatment in case of injury or illness abroad.

Global Warning System (GWS) continues to reinforce their offering within personal security and launch new, innovative services. The background for the planned app launch, is a need for help to get the best possible emergency care in case of accident or illness when traveling abroad. Today, there is no easily accessible information about quality rated hospitals except for data in limited registers, which makes it difficult for travelers to find the best treatment.

Injuries account for 10% of global mortality, mainly in low-income countries. Every 25th second a person dies because of injuries, according to a WHO report from 2013. If you look at the Swedish situation specifically, the number of Swedish citizens perishing abroad has tripled during the last fifteen years and now counts to over 1000 yearly, according to the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The insurance company Länsförsäkringar reported 2012 that 20 000 Swedes are injured abroad every year, with Thailand and Turkey at the top of the list. According to another survey published last December in daily newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet, every third Swede had at sometime been injured or ill during a travel abroad.

Hospitals that meet certain quality criteria, show less complications and lower mortality in connection with severe injuries. Mortality can be lowered with 15 – 25% (WHO 2004). Thus it is not only about getting emergency treatment, it is also about getting to the right hospital for treatment. The new app is designed to help travelers find the hospitals that offer the best medical treatment, no matter where in the world the user happens to be. Through integrations between the hospital database, positioning services and offline maps, a very powerful and comprehensive service has been developed. The user will also for the first time have access through the mobile phone to a global hospital offline map, that works even if data traffic is down. There is also a need among for example insurance companies with own hospital maps to add information to their services. Today there is no solutions for directing injured people to the right hospitals when telecommunications are overloaded, which can often be the case during catastrophes or major incidents.

The service will be integrated with the GWS Safeture service and rolled out successively during 2016. The GWS Safeture service concept is a personal security service when traveling, which provides critical information about disasters and other threats, directly in the traveler’s smartphone through an app that is easily downloaded. Except for the Safeture integration, the service will also be provided as a consumer app service and as integrated content to insurance companies and to the travel security industry.

Andreas Rodman, CEO of GWS, comments on the launch:

“We see that this is a complement to the Safeture service concept. Now, we will not only give alerts and information in real time about threats and incidents, we will also give additional value and guide the users if they are in a situation where they need to seek hospital care. Our services are about saving lives, and this is yet another way to improve security for people when traveling.”