Space medicine
Overview
Space Medicine is a subspecialty of Emergency Medicine which evolved from the Aerospace Medicine specialty. Space Medicine is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of medical conditions that would limit success in space operations. Space medicine focuses specifically on prevention, acute care, emergency medicine, wilderness medicine, hyper/hypobaric medicine in order to provide medical care of astronauts and spaceflight participants. The spaceflight environment poses many unique stressors to the human body, including G forces, microgravity, unusual atmospheres such as low pressure or high carbon dioxide, and space radiation. Space medicine applies space physiology, preventive medicine, primary care, emergency medicine, acute care medicine, austere medicine, public health, and toxicology to prevent and treat medical problems in space. This expertise is additionally used to inform vehicle systems design to minimize the risk to human health and performance while meeting mission objectives.
Most Common Spaceflight Medical Problems
Space medicine
- Anemia of spaceflight
- Bone loss of spaceflight
- Contact dermatitis of spaceflight
- Ocular foreign body (microgravity)
- Ebullism syndrome
- Interpersonal conflicts in spaceflight
- Nitrogen tetroxide toxicity
- Hydrazine toxicity
- Pulmonary disorders of spaceflight
- Sleep disorders of spaceflight
- Space adaptation syndrome
- Space dentistry
- Space motion sickness
- Spaceflight headache
- Spaceflight testicular torsion
- Spaceflight urinary retention
- Spaceflight urinary tract infection
Space Medicine Fellowships
- University of Texas at Houston
- LA County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
- Brigham and Women's Hospital (Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard)