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Medical Research is Flying High
Clinical measurement system tested in zero-gravity flight
What used to be the science fiction of “Star Trek” is becoming science fact through research aimed at keeping astronauts healthy. And Jack Smith, M.D., Ph.D., is helping.
UT School of Health Information Sciences Dean Jack Smith, M.D., Ph.D.,
right, floats upward during a zero gravity flight. With him, from left, are
NASA research collaborators from Glenn Research Center, James F. King
and Rafat Ansari, Ph.D., seated, and Jonathan B. Clark, M.D., flight
surgeon
and neurologist at National Space Biomedical Research Institute
in Houston.
The cart that holds the computer is attached to the floor of the
plane. Photo courtesy of NASA Johnson Space Center
Smith, dean of The University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences at Houston, has been conducting research with NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center for five years. Now, for the first time, he has experienced space medicine research as a test subject – a weightless one at that.
Flying out of Ellington Field in a specially outfitted cargo jet in October, Smith and other researchers floated through the cabin for 20 to 30 seconds at a time as the plane made steep nose dives. In the two-hour flight, the plane completed about 40 roller-coaster like parabolas, Smith said. Motion sickness medication was a welcome precaution.
Just as the fictitious Star Trek tricorder provided noninvasive diagnosis, the clinical measurement system that Smith was helping to test was also noninvasive. Being developed in collaboration with principal investigator Rafat Ansari, Ph.D., at NASA Glenn Research Center in Ohio, the system uses infrared and laser light to measure blood flow and oxygenation of tissues in the eye, brain and leg muscles. A special bandage attaches the technology to a test subject, or “patient.”
“We’re trying to conceptualize and design a health care system necessary for maintaining the health of astronauts on extended exploration missions to the moon and Mars,” Smith said. “A lot of technology has to be redesigned for space travel. We want to require as little human skill and be as noninvasive as possible.
This ZERO-G cargo jet has been outfitted for research experiments.
Photo courtesy of NASA Johnson Space Center
“On earth, you do blood chemistry by taking a blood sample. That’s hard to do in zero gravity,” said Smith, who also holds a faculty appointment at the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.
The new technology has potential applications in the terrestrial environment, too, he noted. “For example, diabetics probably would test their blood sugar more frequently if they could just stick a patch on their skin or shine a light in their eyes.”
As the team leader for medical informatics and health care systems, Smith spends two days a week at Johnson Space Center. The test flight in which he participated was flown by ZERO-G, the first company with which NASA has contracted to do such research flights rather than use their own plane. Several additional experiments were performed on the same flight.
By Ina Fried, Public Affairs