Surgical/medical problems that may occur on a long-duration space flight include urolithiasis, cholethiasis, cholecystitis, pancreatitis and appendicitis. Confirmation of clinical diagnosis with ultrasound is an important step for deciding on appropriate clinical management procedures.

Ultrasound visualization for the gallbladder, common hepatic duct, pancreas and kidney will be performed.

Before the mission, one medical and one non-medical crewmember will receive training on the use of the ultrasound unit. During the mission, two medical and non-medical crewmembers will be part of the study. Initially, the participating crew will run a drill on equipment preparation. Subsequently, each crewmember will perform an ultrasound examination.

Ultrasound-guided abscess cavity drainage simulation

An abscess cavity may form as a result of a complication of cholelithiasis, pancreatitis and appendicitis. Emergency abscess drainage is necessary to prevent systemic sepsis. Confirmation of the abscess with ultrasound is an important step in preparation for drainage.

Ultrasound visualization of an artificial abscess cavity will be undertaken by four crew members (two medical, two non-medical). Prior to the mission, two crew members (one medical, one non-medical) will receive training on the use of the ultrasound unit and drainage equipment. Following the visualization of the artificial abscess, a drainage catheter will be inserted into the cavity using ultrasound guidance. The intracavitary position of the catheter will be confirmed with ultrasound. The drainage will be performed initially with telementoring, and on a subsequent date without telementoring, but using an education manual.

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy using telementoring and telerobotic assisting

Provision of emergency intra-abdominal or intra-thoracic surgical care in an extreme environment has usually required transportation of the often-unstable patient to an emergency surgical facility or transportation of the surgeon to the site. We aim to evaluate how telementoring and telerobotic assisted surgery allow a remote surgeon to aid a non-surgeon in performing a complex surgical operation which may be required on an emergency basis in an extreme environment.

This will demonstrate that a non-physician aquanaut/astronaut can perform emergency limb- or life-saving repair of vascular injury in an extreme environment with the aid of telementoring.

Surgical/medical problems that may occur on a long-duration space flight include urolithiasis, cholethiasis, cholecystitis, pancreatitis and appendicitis. Confirmation of clinical diagnosis with ultrasound is an important step for deciding on appropriate clinical management procedures.

Ultrasound visualization for the gallbladder, common hepatic duct, pancreas and kidney will be performed.

Before the mission, one medical and one non-medical crewmember will receive training on the use of the ultrasound unit. During the mission, two medical and non-medical crewmembers will be part of the study. Initially, the participating crew will run a drill on equipment preparation. Subsequently, each crewmember will perform an ultrasound examination.

The sense of touch is important in training and allowing a surgeon to perform difficult surgical tasks on delicate tissue. Current robotic telesurgical platforms and telementoring modules are not haptic—they do not have a computer-simulated sense of touch. This is because telehaptics produced by signal transmission across a network have a time delay. A number of centres have been working to address this. The problem has hindered the use of haptics in telesurgery and telementoring.

We intend to evaluate a recently developed software and hardware that allows haptic feedback during telerobotic surgery and telementoring. If successful, this new technology will be incorporated into the new robotic platform being developed for use in extreme environments.

Videoconference learning session with Canadian medical students

About 800 medical students from across Canada will take part in this interactive session as Dr. Dave Williams and Dr. Anvari introduce the concept of the delivery of medical care in an atypical environment.

This will demonstrate that a non-physician aquanaut/astronaut can perform emergency limb- or life-saving repair of vascular injury in an extreme environment with the aid of telementoring.

Using the space station robotic manipulator system (SSRMS) simulation software, running on a PC notebook, and SSRMS hand controllers, aquanauts will perform free flyer captures, the most complicated of space robotics tasks. During these operations, analysis software will monitor and analyze performance parameters. Aquanauts will get feedback about each trial performance to be incorporated into future training. They will have access to detailed information about performance. This system for monitoring and maintaining robotic operator performance, called SMP, tracks performance degradation and skills recovery as it applies to complex psycho-motor activities. This experiment has been performed on the on the ISS since May 2003.

There are a number of emergency conditions that may require endoscopic evaluation and therapy in an extreme environment, such as stomach-ulcer bleeding or kidney stones. This test will evaluate whether a non-physician or a non-specialist physician can safely accomplish an endoscopic diagnostic and therapeutic procedure aided by an expert using telementoring.

In this experiment, subjects will be given a small series of test foods to assess palatability, that is, enjoyment, rather than sensitivity. The foods offer a range of tastes: salty, sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy. This test is to compare their anticipated liking of foods with the realized liking in underwater conditions, which is, in this case, an analogue for microgravity.