Ottawa company Telesat to provide telehealth services over satellite.
The commercial trial will begin by the fall of 2004 with the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency also sharing some of the cost.
The trials will bring telehealth services to remote communities where onsite health care is in chronic shortage.
March, a privately-held firm owned by Terry Matthews, specializes in hardware and software for the video surveillance market as well as IP broadband services such as telehealth.
Telehealth allows health care professionals to visit and monitor patients remotely over a live video link, saving travel time and expense. March's Health Monitoring Kit also allows for patient's vital signs to be monitored and transmitted through the broadband connection.
"Delivering telehealth via satellite will benefit everyone: those who deliver health care, those who pay for it, and those who need it - especially in aboriginal and remote communities, " Dave Lahey, Telesat's VP of business development, said in a statement.
"At Telesat, we're pleased to be a world leader not just in facilitating these types of applications, but also in making them feasible through the latest satellite technology. "
The service will be made available over Telesat's Anik F2 satellite, scheduled for launch in the second quarter of 2004. Telesat is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BCE.
"The winning proposition of satellite-based telehealth lies in its ability to connect people living in remote communities with healthcare professionals anywhere in a timely and cost-effective manner, " added Peter Wilenius, March Networks' VP of managed video services.
"Telehealth is a perfect example of a broadband application that benefits people by enabling better health-care delivery. "
