Japan’s largest airline; ANA announced its new “ANA Doctor On Board” service, starting September 2016. Under the new service, should an injury, illness or other medical emergency occur midflight, cabin crew will no longer have to make an initial announcement and ask if there are any doctors on board.

Instead, they will be able to directly seek the help of any physicians on the flight who have registered in advance with the ANA Doctor On Board service, leading to more rapid emergency response.

ANA will begin asking doctors to register from July and plans to start the service on international flights from September. ANA will also provide more details on medical supplies available on each flight, allowing both registered doctors and passengers with existing injuries and illnesses to confirm this information in advance of their flights.

In addition, as part of ANA’s efforts to provide a global, universal service, tablets carried by cabin crews will have language translation software installed to help facilitate initial medical response. The software, ‘ANA Communication Board’, will include medical terms in various languages, which can be verbalized via the tablets’ speakers to aid communication. By October, the software will be able to cover 17 languages in use.

If there are no registered doctors onboard the flights, cabin crews will make the traditional request for any medical professionals onboard to step forward.