Travel risk management provider Anvil no longer partners
with third-party medical assistance companies and instead has brought the
service in house under the name Anvil Assist. The change makes security and
medical assistance a one-stop shop, or rather a one-phone-call service.
Anvil services can be procured individually or bundled, and a
spokesperson told BTN that Anvil clients who had received medical assistance
through Anvil partners will see no increase in costs.
Major incidents, especially, "almost always require a
coordinated medical and security response" to connect the dots:
"tracking the situation live, locating people, organizing medical
treatment and getting the client to safety," the spokesperson said.
So Anvil has recruited 20 medical responders who are trained
medical professionals and is hiring more. Dr. Juliane Kause—a fellow of the
Royal College of Physicians, specialist in acute and critical care medicine and
founder of the Society for Rapid Response Systems who was a flight doctor for
20 years—heads the team as chief medical officer. The in-house medical
responders "directly manage all medical cases from pre‐deployment
screening and clearance to travel, initial diagnosis and local treatment to repatriation
and post‐travel care," according to Anvil.
More than 400 medical consultants back up the in-house team,
which sits in the same room as the security personnel in Anvil's global
operations center in the U.K.
Post-Travel Care
Anvil also claims to be the first medical-assistance
provider to offer post-travel care, as well. "We make sure travelers who
have experienced medical issues abroad or been caught up in a major incident are
mentally and physically well and able to successfully complete their treatment
and return to work," the spokesperson said. "We're aware that
incidents, even minor ones, can have a significant impact on individuals, so we
continue the care afterward. Assistance goes far beyond just treating the
immediate condition."