Latitude Technologies

Ornge aircraft to receive Latitude Technologies satellite phone technology

Ornge, North America’s largest provider of aero-medical transport services will now use state of the art Latitude Technologies Skynode satellite phones for its air to ground communications.

“Clear lines of communication amongst our doctors and communications staff on the ground and our medics in the air is an integral part of ensuring quality patient care,” said Steve Farquhar, director of operations, Ornge. “Our medics and physicians rely on this technology to exchange patient information from admission for transport to completion of transport,” he added.

The air to land telecommunication challenge is daunting in a geographic area as large as Ontario. Occupying nearly 11 percent of Canada’s total land area means that much of the 1million km2 are in remote areas. Dependable and reliable communications tools are an essential element of the equation to providing patient care to citizens in all parts of the province.

Ornge chose the Skynode S200 satellite telephone system because of product quality, features and Latitude’s solid industry experience. “The Skynode S200 is the smallest, lightest device to provide voice, flight tracking, and 2-way data communication for aircraft anywhere on the planet,” said Harlan Hamlin, vice-president business development, Latitude Technologies.

The S200 will be installed immediately in all Ornge Sikorsky S76 rotor wing aircraft and the Ornge King Air 200 fixed wing aircraft. In addition, Ornge has also acquired 15 portable handsets from Latitude for additional communication capability when responding to on-scene trauma.

Ornge operates from 26 bases across the province and completes 18,000 admissions annually. It coordinates all aspects of Ontario’s aero medical transport system and authorization of air and land ambulance transfers between hospitals. Ornge is dedicated to propelling life through innovative transport medicine.

Latitude Technologies Corporation, based in Victoria BC is a leading provider of Iridium value added equipment and services used for the management of risk and location of critical assets. Latitude SkyNode devices are currently operating worldwide in fixed and rotor wing aircraft.