Providing health care in rural and remote areas: lessons from the international space station

Circumnavigating the globe every 90 minutes, 400 km above the Earth's surface and at a speed of 27 600 km per hour, the international space station typically does not evoke thoughts of rural Haiti. An isolated extraterrestrial outpost of humanity, it represents a marvel of human engineering and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bulletin of the World Health Organization Vol. 94; no. 1; pp. 73 - 74
Main Author: Papali, Alfred
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Switzerland World Health Organization 01.01.2016
Subjects:
Aeronautics
Aerospace Medicine - instrumentation
Aerospace Medicine - methods
Aerospace Medicine - trends
Astronauts
Collaboration
Collaborative approach
Constraints
Data transmission
Earth surface
Emergency medical care
Emergency medical services
Emergency services
Engineering
Engineers
Extraterrestrials
Haiti
Health care
Health care policy
Health care services accessibility
Health services
Health Services Accessibility - organization & administration
Health Services Accessibility - standards
Human engineering
Humans
Influence
International
International Space Station
Low income groups
Management
Medical research
Medical technology
Medically Underserved Area
Medicine
Perspectives
Point of care testing
Remote areas
Rural areas
Rural communities
Rural health
Rural health care
Rural Health Services - organization & administration
Rural Health Services - standards
Rural Health Services - trends
Space Flight
Space stations
Telecommunications
Telemedicine
Telemedicine - instrumentation
Telemedicine - methods
Telemedicine - trends
Ultrasonic imaging
Ultrasound
Haiti
ASW, Caribbean Sea, Greater Antilles, Haiti
ISSN:0042-9686, 1564-0604
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Circumnavigating the globe every 90 minutes, 400 km above the Earth's surface and at a speed of 27 600 km per hour, the international space station typically does not evoke thoughts of rural Haiti. An isolated extraterrestrial outpost of humanity, it represents a marvel of human engineering and ingenuity. It is this very isolation, ironically, that gives it something in common with rural areas in low- and middle-income countries here on Earth. When thinking about the vexing barriers to improving emergency care, you can look to the sky to find solutions -- the space station provides three examples of what might work. Task-shifting, point-of-care ultrasound and telemedicine services, if scaled up as part of an organized, collaborative approach among diverse interests, are three methods that might improve access to -- and quality of -- care in rural and remote areas.
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ISSN:0042-9686
1564-0604
DOI:10.2471/BLT.15.162628