Textbook of Maritime Medicine

CIRM was founded in Spain in 1928 by 8 companies engaged in the application of radio to the maritime service. It was re-constituted in Belgium in 1947 and subsequently moved to London.

To most workers within maritime medicine, however, the acronym CIRM stands for Centro Internazionale Radio Medico in Rome. This is a different organization, and must not be confused with the Comité International Radio-Maritime in London.

CIRM was accredited in 1949 as a non-governmental organization and given consultative status to the International Maritime organization (IMO).  Today the organization has the status of being a Sector Member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-R and ITU-T), is a Liaison Member both of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and of the International Electrotechnical Comission (IEC), besides being an observer with all other relevant international and regional organisations dealing with maritime radio-communication.

The objectives are to promote the application of electronic technology to the safety of life and efficient conduct of vessels at sea; to foster relations between all organizations concerned with electronic aids to marine navigation, communications and information systems.

This makes the organization an important partner in the development of a moderen telemedical maritime assistance service (TMAS), as well as in moderen bridge design. The interplay between man and machine requires human physiology to be taken into account when developing and incorporating new technological devices on the bridge.