Innovation (May/June 97) - Telemedicine Beginnings

  Volume 5, Number 3     May/June 1997

  Telemedicine

Telemedicine From NASA's Beginnings

S WITH SO MANY OTHER PIONEERING initiatives, NASA's telemedicine efforts began nearly 40 years ago as a solution to a problem. Medical personnel at the Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston needed to be able to monitor astronauts' biomedical responses because they were in extreme and remote environments. Astronauts also had to have access to medical care even though they were thousands of miles away from the nearest hospital.

Enter telemedicine technologies. Telemedicine continues from Mercury in the early 1960s to Gemini, Apollo and Skylab through the current Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) Phase I missions (Shuttle/Mir). During Space Shuttle missions, astronauts have daily private medical conferences with the crew surgeon on Earth. Physiological parameters including heart rate, oxygen consumption, heat production and suit carbon dioxide levels, and environmental parameters are monitored by the biomedical team at JSC via biotelemetry.

STS-81 Shuttle/Mir mission crew aboard Russian Mir space station.

These solutions in space also have applications on Earth. NASA foresees a revolution in global health care delivery through the application of telecommunications, computer, and microelectronic and nanoelectronic technologies to support revolutionary improvements in such delivery. NASA promotes, develops and uses advanced technologies to deliver health care that benefits space flight and enhances health care for everyone.

That development continues. Researchers are working on telemedicine applications that support U.S. astronauts aboard the Russian Mir space station and the ISS. NASA also has used its expertise in telemedicine and telecommunications to provide assistance to disaster-stricken areas of the world and to aid in the application of space-based technologies to terrestrial medical care.

NASA Telemedicine Timeline

1970
NASA applies space technology to Rural Papago Advanced Health Care Program, bringing medical care to Papago Indian Reservation, AZ. 1975
NASA uses Applied Technology Satellite-6 (ATS-6) to provide S-band television, education and support for agriculture and health in India.
Satellite technology (COSPRAS/SARSAT) supports international search and rescue efforts in Canada, France and the former Soviet Union.
NASA's ATS-1 and ATS-3 support Pacific Basin health care education efforts through PEACESAT.
1989
Spacebridge to Armenia/Ufa responds to December 1988 earthquake in Armenia and gas explosion in Ufa. 1993
University of Washington joins Lewis Research Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory on a teleradiology project that uses Advanced Communications Technology Satellite.
Spacebridge to Moscow responds to October 1993 civil disturbances.
1994
NASA collaborates with University of Pittsburgh, WHO, PAHO, USAID and World Bank to organize Global Health Network, which provides tele-preventive medicine. 1995
Ames Research Center,Trident Inc. and Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, collaborate on a telemedicine demonstration project.

For more information, visit
the NASA Telemedicine Home Page at http://www.it.hq.nasa.gov/~kmorgan/telemed_blue/welcome.html
or the NASA Telemedicine Gateway at http://www.nttc.edu/telemed.html
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

NASA Official: Jonathan Root
Web Designer: Joe Goldfus
Credits