COMMENT
Space-based systems are playing a big role in delivering a wide range of health services for people back on Earth, says Alan Brunstrom of the European Space Agency.
T
he words ‘health’ and ‘space’ are not often used in the same sentence, ex-
cept for discussing the well-being of satel- lites. Yet space-based systems are playing an increasing role in delivering a wide range of health services for terrestrial us- ers, often in ways that would surprise both medical professionals and the patients who benefi t from them.
Health at long distances
The most obvious examples are in the fi eld of telemedicine, although even here, new services have quite literally taken off. The TEMPUS service from UK fi rm RDT was created with the assistance of funding from the European Space Agency. It built upon techniques for remotely monitoring the health of astronauts, combining diagnos- tic tools with satellite telecommunications. Now in use with major airlines such as BMI, TEMPUS deploys compact units that
18 | national health executive Jul/Aug 11
can be stored in the overhead lockers of a passenger aircraft and which can be used by untrained personnel in the event of an in-fl ight medical emergency.
A range of parameters such as heart rate, temperature and blood pressure are read automatically and transmitted to a tel- emedicine centre where they are analysed by medical staff who can obtain additional information by a voice link to the person operating the equipment. The main pur- pose is to determine whether or not the air- craft should divert to the nearest suitable airport, with the potential to save both lives and a great deal of time and money.
Already applied to other markets (e.g. yachts), the system is now being devel- oped for wider application among clini- cal users in remote locations, including governments, NGOs, charities and mining companies. Funding is split between the
system developers and ESA’s Integrated Applications Promotion programme (IAP).
Innovation
ESA is a not-for-profi t, inter-governmental organisation that runs programmes on almost all aspects of space, with a total budget in the billions. Within this, IAP has a budget of €56m to help fund feasi- bility studies and demonstration projects across a wide range of markets. The UK’s Technology Strategy Board is the largest contributor to the programme and they work closely with ESA to identify topics for new projects, which may be addressed either by open competitions or through unsolicited bids by consortia of industry suppliers.
TEMPUS is by no means ESA’s only foray into telemedicine. The Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine and e-health in Tromso
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