Medical skill maintenance during long duration space flight: Performance of management of medical emergencies regarding isolation an losss of knowledge over time

Medical support of a crew members under extreme environmental conditions (e.g. microgravity), which significantly alters human physiology over time and with limited or lacking access to medical expertise is a major challenge of long term space missions. Crew physician medical skills should be maintained on a sufficient level during a long duration space flight. This study will provide means of adapted emergency algorithms in conjunction with a human patient simulator based expert system for...

Medical support of a crew members under extreme environmental conditions (e.g. microgravity), which significantly alters human physiology over time and with limited or lacking access to medical expertise is a major challenge of long term space missions. Crew physician medical skills should be maintained on a sufficient level during a long duration space flight. This study will provide means of adapted emergency algorithms in conjunction with a human patient simulator based expert system for decision support. The feasibility of a individualized model driven autonomous decision support system for pre-flight training and in-flight skill maintenance will targeted in this study. The project is build up on experience on simulation and telemedical support in a former german-russian cooperation project (TEMOS) and on practical experience of providing emergency and scheduled medical support in remote environments of the Canadian Arctic. It has also relevance to other projects submitted by the Antarctic Medicine Group in the framework of the International Polar Year, which focus on integrated medical support in circumpolar environments.

Medical support of expedition members under extreme environmental conditions, which significantly alters human physiology over time and with limited or lacking access to medical expertise is a major challenge. Physicians medical skills should be maintained on a sufficient level during a long duration journey. This study will provide means of adapted emergency algorithms in conjunction with a human patient simulator based expert system for decision support. The feasibility of a individualized model driven autonomous decision support system for training and skill maintenance will targeted in this study. The project is build up on experience on simulation and telemedical support in a former german-russian telemedical cooperation project (TEMOS, http://www.e-gms.de/en/reports/temos2004/TEMOS.pdf).