Global healthcare specialist VIKAND has appointed Ronald Spithout as its Managing Director for VIKAND’s proactive total healthcare solution, called OneHealth, to support seafarers’ wellbeing.

Mr. Spithout will combine his role at VIKAND with his duties at MariDISC, the company he started in 2022 and where he combines his over 30 years of experience in telecommunications with 20 years in digital applications of mobile satellite communications. Previously, in his nine-year tenure as Business Unit President at Inmarsat, of which six years as President of Inmarsat’s maritime business, where he was instrumental in driving digitalisation at sea. In which capacity in 2020 he was ranked 22 in the Lloyd’s List Top 100 most influential people in maritime and he won the Safety4Sea leadership award in 2021 for promoting smarter shipping throughout his career.

His key responsibilities at VIKAND will be to communicate and grow VIKAND’s OneHealth business in the commercial maritime sector by promoting the digital innovation and progressive medical insights of OneHealth to proactively focus on seafarers’ overall wellness, not just concentrating reactively on specific illnesses or conditions.

OneHealth is an all-inclusive, proactive process to onboard health and wellness which has been inspired by VIKAND’s vision of putting seafarer health at the top of the agenda. For VIKAND this means supporting a holistic approach to seafarer health and happiness through policies, services and solutions that promote better onboard physical and mental health.

The aim of OneHealth is to change the perception of healthcare in the maritime industry from viewing healthcare as a cost to viewing healthcare as a value driver and an integral part of ‘Social Investment in Shipping’, addressing not only the obvious physical and mental aspects of wellbeing on board, but also the direct positive impact on important KPI’s as Safety, Preservation of Experience and Risk management. A good and proactive healthcare system means a healthier and happier workforce, leading to less downtime due to sickness or injury, a more motivated and loyal workforce and safer vessel operations.

“We’re really pleased to welcome Ronald as Managing Director for OneHealth by VIKAND as he has a proven track record of strategic and operational success in providing the industry with scalable broadband connectivity. His experience and knowledge will be invaluable in helping to shape the future growth potential for VIKAND’s proactive healthcare services. Our OneHealth by VIKAND approach is to offer support and healthcare advice to seafarers by offering sustainable solutions to enable them keep in the best possible shape in body and soul,” said Peter Hult, CEO of VIKAND.

Commenting on his appointment Ronald said, “I am excited to join as Managing Director of OneHealth by VIKAND as I share Peter’s vision to provide the maritime industry with a state of the art comprehensive and proactive healthcare approach to manage seafarers’ physical and mental wellbeing. VIKAND is obviously not new to me, but I am excited to see that they have reached a stage whereby they are combining their innovative digital solutions and proven capabilities in physical and mental healthcare in the cruise industry, for use in all commercial maritime environments. Using that combination of technology and medical capabilities represents another step in further enhancing seafarers’ wellbeing which in my mind is instrumental to really drive the bottom line of ship operators and therefore the overall sustainability of the industry. So, I am honored and enthusiastic to play a role in helping to achieve VIKAND’s goal of becoming the global leader in maritime healthcare.”