The use of high-fidelity patient simulation in defining telehealth support needs for in-flight medical crisis management in long duration spaceflight

This paper and presentation will describe current efforts underway at the McMaster University Centre for Clinical Simulation in applying high fidelity patient simulation technology to the study of telehealth support for long duration spaceflight. High fidelity patient simulation technology allows for real-time, hands-on, clinically accurate replication of critical health care events such as cardiovascular collapse, respiratory arrest, cardiac arrhythmias and many other life-threatening events. Full-body, computer-driven high fidelity patient simulators are combinations of physical task trainers, sophisticated physiologic modeling, and realistic pharmacologic modeling in one platform. Current conceptualization for high fidelity simulation extends beyond the physical patient simulator to include requisite ancillary equipment and environmental trappings of the health care setting being simulated. Current efforts described include the development of telehealth scenarios involving high fidelity simulation and teleconferencing models to investigate the management of critical events over extended networks and in remote locations. Copyright IAF/IAA. All rights reserved.