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NASA-funded telemed research brings medical care to remote regions

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  • NASA-funded telemed research brings medical care to remote regions

    NASA, DC
    May 5 2004

    NASA-funded telemedicine research brings medical care to people
    living in Earth's remote regions, improves space medicine


    What do villages in the Amazon jungles, the peaks of Mount Everest
    and Mars have in common? All are remote places where doctors may not
    be available to provide medical care for patients. Now, doctors can
    reach patients via television and computers - a concept called
    telemedicine. One day, space explorers may use telemedicine to
    consult with doctors on Earth. Telemedicine research is being
    conducted by Dr. Ronald Merrell, director of the Medical Informatics
    Technology Applications Consortium - a NASA Research Partnership
    Center managed by the Space Partnership Development program at the
    Marshall Center.

    Photo: Merrell (Virginia Commonwealth University)


    What do villages in the Amazon jungles, the peaks of Mount Everest
    and Mars have in common? All are remote places where doctors may not
    be available to provide medical care for patients.

    But now, thanks to high-tech electronics, doctors do not always have
    to be with the patient to assist with medical care. Instead, doctors
    can literally visit patients or consult with other doctors via
    television and/or computers - a concept called "telemedicine." One
    day, these "television calls" may become routine for the first humans
    living on lunar and Martian outposts.

    "Telemedicine changes the way we approach medical care, both
    intellectually and logistically," explains Dr. Ronald C. Merrell,
    director of the Medical Informatics Technology Applications
    Consortium, a NASA Research Partnership Center at Virginia
    Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va.

    "And with the nation embarking on a new space exploration voyage,
    back to the Moon and onto Mars, long-term medical care becomes even
    more important for space travelers," adds Merrell. "The constraints
    of providing medical treatment using telemedicine to patients at
    remote places on Earth and to people in space are similar, so what we
    learn on Earth can be applied to using telemedicine for human space
    exploration."

    Merrell, a professor of surgery, recently returned from Sucua,
    Ecuador, where his medical team and local physicians set up a mobile
    unit for diagnosing and treating tropical diseases in Amazon villages
    that are only reachable by small planes or canoes. They installed
    computers, cameras and other equipment, along with medical and
    surgical tools. Through this technology, Merrell and his team can
    consult with their colleagues in South America.

    The Medical Informatics and Technology Applications Consortium has
    been a partner with Cinterandes Foundation in Cuenca, Ecuador, for
    several years. The foundation has provided a mobile surgical facility
    that transmits the vital signs of patients in Ecuador to doctors
    3,000 miles away at Virginia Commonwealth University. In one case, an
    anesthesiologist at the university, monitoring a surgery in Ecuador,
    noticed a life-threatening irregularity in the patient's heart
    rhythm. He warned the surgeons, who responded in time to prevent harm
    to the patient.

    "Testing technologies that provide medical care to space crews not
    only benefits individuals who need medical care, but entire
    countries," says Merrell. "Medical students and physicians from
    across the globe have visited Virginia Commonwealth University,
    learned about telemedicine and gone back to their countries to start
    telemedicine programs."

    For the past several years, the Medical Informatics and Technology
    Applications Consortium has tested different telemedicine units
    operating under a variety of conditions in many locations - including
    Mount Everest, the Artic Circle, Russia, Brazil, Mongolia and Kenya.
    Telemedicine is used not only to consult with colleagues, but also to
    train medical students - requiring them to watch experts perform
    surgeries and other procedures.

    "Providing the best medical training to students and practicing
    physicians is one of the most rewarding aspects of this research,"
    Merrell says. "One of my teachers at Ensley High School in
    Birmingham, Ala., was the first person who got me interested in
    science, so I believe it is important to inspire the next generation.
    What could be better than making it possible for students and doctors
    - no matter where they are studying or practicing medicine - to learn
    from the world's leading medical experts?"

    Merrell, an Alabama native, obtained a bachelor's degree in chemistry
    from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and doctorate of
    medicine from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. He completed
    his residency and fellowship training at the Barnes Hospital at
    Washington University in St. Louis. He has held prestigious positions
    at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and Yale University
    School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. He began his relationship with
    NASA in 1984 when he was a professor of surgery at the Texas Medical
    Center in Houston near NASA's Johnson Space Center. He led programs
    in clinical medicine, education and research, and his first
    telemedicine project funded by NASA provided care as part of a relief
    effort in Armenia.

    Now, Merrell's team is testing how doctors might use telemedicine to
    train space crews to perform surgery. This summer, doctors from
    Virginia Commonwealth University will fly aboard NASA's KC-135
    aircraft - a plane that flies roller coaster patterns and exposes
    researchers to a few minutes of low-gravity in which they float about
    like space crews. Merrell and his fellow researchers will practice
    surgery techniques, so they can experience how space conditions
    affect the way surgery is conducted.

    "We know that performing surgery and other medical procedures in
    space will be different from working on Earth," Merrell says. "The
    more we can learn, the better we can help space crews complete long,
    productive exploration missions to the Moon, to Mars and beyond."

    For more information visit:

    http://www.nasa.gov

    Medical Informatics Technology Applications Consortium

    http://www.meditac.com/

    Office of Biological and Physical Research

    http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/

    Space Partnership Development Program

    http://www.spd.nasa.gov/

    http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news/news/releases/2004/04-129.html
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