• Question: How close do you think we are to getting a major breakthrough for medical treatments as a result of the ISS experiments?

    Asked by spacefan226 to Vinita, Kirsty, Col Op, Charlie 🚀, Andrea on 15 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Charles Laing

      Charles Laing answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      Hi spacefan226,

      Lots of cool things have already been discovered due to space technologies developed or experiments conducted!

      Here are a few examples:

      1. Light-emitting diodes (LED) for help in brain cancer surgery
      2. Foam used to insulate space shuttle external tanks for less expensive, better moulds for artificial arms and legs
      3. Voice-controlled wheelchairs
      4. Laser blood vessel repair using fiber-optics
      5. Forceps with fiber-optics that let doctors measure the pressure applied to a baby’s head during delivery
      6. Tiny transmitters to monitor the unborn babies
      7. Programmable pacemakers (heart timekeepers)
      8. Cool suit to lower body temperature in treatment of various conditions
      9. Tools for cataract (eye) surgery
      10. Cancer imaging tools developed from Hubble Space Telescope technology

      Charlie 😀🚀

    • Photo: Andrea Boyd

      Andrea Boyd answered on 16 Jun 2016:

      What Charlie said 🙂

      And I will add also mini ultrasound devices that can be use by anyone and linked back to a doctor which have saved so many lives in remote communities because these mobile units can easily be taken by people travelling: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/benefits/ultrasound.html

      Before that you had to be in a big city and a hospital with a huge machine that weighed a ton. That may not seem like a big deal when you live in the city and have a hospital up the road but I used to live in the desert where the closest city was 560miles away and I have friends who live three times as far away as that from a hospital. With a remote ultrasound you can know what’s wrong, and the doctor who flies out on a plane can bring the right equipment instead of just guessing and bringing a bit of everything and maybe missing the thing they need – the flying doctor planes are small and they have to be very careful with balancing weight.

    • Photo: Kirsty Lindsay

      Kirsty Lindsay answered on 16 Jun 2016:

      I’d add the breast cancer screening algorithm and the wearable monitor LTMS suit

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