HealthNet was a

satellite communication A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. C ...

service that provided healthcare workers in

developing nations A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

with access to current medical literature. It also allowed them to exchange information with each other and with colleagues in developed nations. It was operated by American nonprofit SatelLife.

Creation

The idea of SatelLife began in 1985 as a project to include healthcare organizations from the southern hemisphere in global health discussions. It was proposed by

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) is a non-partisan federation of national medical groups in 63 countries, representing doctors, medical students, other health workers, and concerned people who share the goal of ...

. The organization was founded in 1989, chaired by

Bernard Lown Bernard Lown (June 7, 1921February 16, 2021) was a Lithuanian-American cardiologist and inventor. Lown was the original developer of the direct current defibrillator for cardiac resuscitation, and the cardioverter for correcting rapid disordered h ...

Services

The HealthNet constellation provided email services, access to news, electronic conferences, and offline access to websites using a

store-and-forward Store and forward is a telecommunications technique in which information is sent to an intermediate station where it is kept and sent at a later time to the final destination or to another intermediate station. The intermediate station, or node in ...

message scheme. The news included selected abstracts and summaries of major medical journals. It also included several newsletters published by HealthNet. Electronic conferences were for discussing medical topics electronically, including

ProMED-mail Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (also known as ProMED-mail, abbreviated ProMED) is among the largest publicly available emerging diseases and outbreak reporting systems in the world. The purpose of ProMED is to promote communication amon ...

Constellation

Healthsat-1

Healthsat-1 was launched in 1990 as UoSAT-3 (named for the

University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institut ...

, one of the mission sponsors). It was later transferred to SatelLife and renamed Healthsat-1.

Healthsat-2

Healthsat-2 (later WavSat-1) was purpose-built for the HealthNet constellation by

Surrey Satellite Technology Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, or SSTL, is a company involved in the manufacture and operation of small satellites. A spin-off company of the University of Surrey, it is presently wholly owned by Airbus Defence and Space. The company began ...

. In 1993, it provided communications to CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent while it was in the

Northwest passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arct ...

, reported as the first use of Low Earth Orbit communications near the North Pole. In 1998, SatelLife announced an agreement to share unused capacity from Healthsat-2 with Volunteers In Technical Assistance (VITA), who would operate Healthsat-2 as VITASat 1R. Operations were transferred to satellite communications company Wavix, which continued operating the satellite as WavSat-1.

References

{{reflist Communications satellites Non-profit organizations based in the United States Satellites in low Earth orbit Healthcare journals