University of MD School of Medicine to help astronauts learn medical

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Aug 8, 2005 by Joe Bacchus

How do you demonstrate a complicated medical procedure to someone with little training - and who happens to be floating weightlessly in space?

The University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore has received a $1.6 million, four-year grant to help find an answer. The school's Program in Trauma will design a multimedia tutorial to guide astronauts through emergency medical procedures. The project is in conjunction with the University of Utah and NASA-Johnson Space Center's Usability Testing and Analysis Facility.

The multimedia program - which could use animations, videos, static images and audio instructions as tutorial aids - would replace the current medical information index that is used in space shuttles and the International Space Station, said F. Jacob Seagull, director of performance technology research in Maryland's trauma program.

Seagull said besides being written like an engineering manual, NASA's current medical index is a bit cumbersome - more than 1,000 pages in a three-ring binder.

He said the university conducted a feasibility study by developing an instructional video for airway management, and is confident the project will be successful. Seagull said the end result might be something akin to the technology of Star Trek - a hands-free, voice-activated computer that can guide a novice through emergency medical procedures.

He said an easy-to-use medical tutorial would be vital for emergency medical procedures in space, where astronauts are not assured of contact with physicians on Earth, and where traditional procedures are not always possible.

The lack of gravity in space - and the reduced gravity of long- term destinations such as the moon and Mars - means NASA will also have to rewrite many common medical procedures. Simple medical procedures aren't so simple when performed nearly 200 miles above the earth, Seagull said.

Take CPR as an example. Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation relies on the ability to apply force, which is not the easy without gravity's aid. Researchers at the National Space Biomedical Research Institute have used a high-altitude plane - nicknamed the Vomit Comet - to develop a new CPR method that has the two people involved stand on opposite walls and push toward each other.

Dwayne R. Westenskow, of the University of Utah, said a study using animated line drawings indicates that a multimedia tutorial could effectively teach such medical procedures.

We evaluated the impact of the animation, and found that people who learned how to do CPR solely from the animated drawings did as well as those who had full classroom instruction in CPR, Westenskow said in a statement.

The study comes as President Bush continues to push for further space exploration, despite the recent grounding of NASA's shuttle fleet.