European Space Agency Develops Augmented Reality Medical System

The European Space Agency (ESA) has developed what it calls the Computer Aided Medical Diagnosis and Surgery System (CAMDSS), a means for providing astronauts the medical skills necessary to perform diagnostic and in some cases surgical procedures on one another when deployed on space missions that prevent them from returning to Earth in a timely fashion. The agency describes their progress with the system on the ESA page, and details it's specifics in a paper published separately on the site.

Augmented reality is where computers are able to display information on a headset that describes the actual thing a user is looking at. One example is a head's up display that a passenger in a car can use to identify buildings as they are driving down the street. An augmented medical device would use cameras to identify body parts, external devices to measure life signs, artificial intelligence to make a diagnosis and a helmet with a visor to display the necessary information. Such systems are seen as a critical component of future space travel expeditions due to the absence of doctors or other medical professionals on spacecraft, at least in the early stages of such exploration. The ESA in its report says it believes such a system could be developed to the extent that astronauts could actually perform surgery on one another should the need arise.

The main difficulty with such a system is in programming in the necessary skill set to properly diagnose a condition and then to offer the correct fix. Down here on Earth, such a smart system has thus far eluded researchers, which might make the job of many diagnosticians obsolete. This would be a requirement for space travelers however as the time it could take for signals to transmit between Earth and a spacecraft could make emergency treatment impossible.

The EAS says that its current iteration of the device allows for plugging in all manner of diagnostic tools, such as heart rate and blood pressure monitors, EEG, EKG, sonogram, and perhaps even soon, a small MRI machine. To use the CAMDSS, one astronaut would don the helmet with the visor, fire it up and then take directions from the system as to which tool to use and when. For surgical or other physical procedures, the astronaut/virtual doctor would be shown via the visor, which part of the body to work on, and what to do with it. Also, videos of actual procedures could be shown beforehand, to familiarize the astronaut with what would be needed to be done.

The EAS isn't suggesting their system is ready for use, rather they are showing off what they have developed thus far and what they believe they can accomplished in the near future as rocket designs in the US, Europe and Asia move forward to the time when extended space travel becomes a reality.