by Mark Wilding (WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021)
Dealing with situations outside the realm of normal human experience is all part of an astronaut’s job description. Still, one can imagine the discomfort felt by the International Space Station (ISS) crew member who received the first diagnosis of venous thrombosis during spaceflight. There is no good time and place to discover a blood clot in your jugular vein, but finding one while you’re more than 200 miles above the Earth is particularly inconvenient.
Helpfully, the ISS was carrying supplies of a blood-thinning medication that could address this potentially life-threatening condition. Still, the astronaut’s dosage had to be cut by a third partway through treatment until more medicine could arrive aboard a supply spacecraft. Several months later, the astronaut – whose identity has not been revealed – returned to Earth and made a full recovery.
[…]
Research projects funded by TRISH include Butterfly iQ, a handheld ultrasound device for use by non-medical personnel to make diagnoses that would otherwise require bulky equipment and a trained operator. VisualDx is an AI diagnostics tool originally developed to analyse images and identify skin conditions. The technology is now being adapted to help astronauts diagnose a wide range of conditions most commonly encountered in space, without an internet connection.
Subscribe to VisualDx Today
Become a VisualDx subscriber today and gain access to clinical information and medical images of thousands of diagnoses. Your first 7 days are FREE.