Volume 5, Number 3     May/June 1997

  Telemedicine

NASA Builds "Spacebridge to Russia"

OMEDAY, THE OLD-FASHIONED HOUSE CALL could return in a new-fangled format. Doctors and patients would meet via personal computer, which would mean no more sick patients trudging to the doctor's office.

Astronauts working on the Space Station would not be able to visit their doctors on Earth. Thus surfaced the necessity of Spacebridge to Russia, a NASA project that one day hopes to focus on home health care, whether home is on the Space Station or on Earth.

Right now, Spacebridge to Russia, a collaborative effort between NASA's Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications, Division of Aerospace Medicine and the Russian Space Agency, is working to further the development of an operational telemedicine system to support the human space flight program's medical activities. This work includes NASA's medical personnel in remote locations.

Spacebridge to Russia web site for patient presentation.

Spacebridge to Russia is an Internet-based telemedicine testbed that links academic and clinical sites in the United States and Russia via the Internet for clinical consultations and medical education. Using multimedia computers and Internet technologies, such as the World Wide Web and video teleconferencing, leading U.S. and Russian academicians have exchanged ideas in several medical disciplines. Coordination on the Russian side is performed by the Space Biomedical Center for Training and Research at Moscow State University.

Other U.S. and Russian sites are being integrated into this activity to evaluate telemedicine and medical education on the Internet. They include LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah; Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, Virginia; Yale University School of Medicine and the Clinical Hospital of the Medical Department of the Ministry of Interior, Moscow. Each site has a Silicon Graphics Indy computer workstation; certain sites have additional telemedicine support diagnostic tools. Also involved are IKI (Space Research Institute) and the Central Clinical Hospital of the Russian Federation's Government Medical Center.

The Ames Research Center developed the platform and provides network support for Spacebridge to Russia, specifically the incorporation of nonproprietary software for videoconferencing. The Lewis Research Center developed a World Wide Web graphical user interface for preparing case materials, such as patient medical records, images, audio and video. In most cases, data are stored first, then forwarded to another site. Yet, multimedia workstations, accessible through networks such as the Internet, provide a platform for conducting diverse clinical consultations via videoconferencing and whiteboarding.

Physicians may use these multimedia workstations to create and consult on clinical cases that are stored electronically in a relational database containing patient records. Physicians interact with the database over the Internet using a common web browser, such as Netscape Navigator. The patient databases are stored and mirrored on two servers—one located in the United States and the other in Moscow—to increase system response time.

Telemedicine in post-disaster response: Spacebridge to Armenia, a predecessor to Spacebridge to Russia.

The full integration of Internet services for use by NASA will one day allow clinicians to interact with each other and their patients via real-time video, audio and whiteboard while having simultaneous access to case-related information and medical education. In fact, NASA has developed a partnership between Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and Moscow State University to use this infrastructure to support medical education. The Johnson Space Center has teamed with Baylor for a series of medical education lectures between Baylor and Moscow State University. Several lectures in a variety of disciplines already have been conducted using the Internet and the Spacebridge to Russia infrastructure. Lecture material is provided via a graphical user interface on the World Wide Web.

For more information, contact Michael A. Cauley at Lewis Research Center.
Call 216/433-3483, Fax 216/433-8705, E-mail: mcauley@lerc.nasa.gov
Or contact Charles Doarn at NASA Headquarters.
Call Call 202/358-0821, Fax 202/358-3038, E-mail: cdoarn@hq.nasa.gov
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.