The central objective of our proposal is to provide guidance for the development of evidence-based countermeasures against these vulnerabilities. This is important to determine so we can add the right behavioral skills to astronaut training. We plan to implement the study and measure interactions during a medical emergency in a space analog setting that replicates some features of long-term isolation, crew autonomy, and time-delay as experienced on long duration missions. We propose to do this by studying capacity to manage medical emergencies in space using a range of methods. We will use high fidelity simulation to study how the astronaut crew performs together to resolve simulated medical emergencies in a lab setting. We will measure adherence to key processes, team behavior, mental workload, and physiological metrics to better understand the demands faced by space crew and ground personnel.

These scenarios include detailed and standardized running orders with triggers, patient vitals, patient cues, expected participant actions, and facilitator notes. Variants of the scenarios to include available communications with/ without mission control are included. The focus is on crew coordination and behavioral skills rather than medical or technical proficiency. The method used for scenario creation is scalable and could be used to develop scenarios for medical crew training in terrestrial settings.

The second impact with relevance to Earth is the development of a multimodal method to integrating multiple sources of data (physiological, video, observational, survey) for measurement and support of crew performance.

A total of 59 subjects were enrolled in this study, including graduate and undergraduate students from STEM (Sciene, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians (EMT). A total of 16 teams were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: 08 teams with support from flight surgeon (with FS) vs 08 teams without support from flight surgeon (without FS). Each team was composed of 4 participants, from which 3 members at a time were assigned to participate in 4 consecutives simulated scenarios.

We planned and implemented this study to measure interactions during a medical emergency in a space analog setting that replicates some features of long-term isolation, crew autonomy, and time-delay as experienced on long duration missions. By using high fidelity simulation, we were able to study how the astronaut crew performs together to resolve simulated medical emergencies in a lab setting. We gathered video recordings of 16 flight crews each managing 4 unique medical events in a spacecraft simulator. Our primary aim was to understand how teams performed with and without support from a flight surgeon at mission control center. We assessed differences in behavioral skills, technical performance, and cognitive load between groups.

ANNUAL REPORTING JANUARY 2020

1. Developed and designed 4 medical event simulation scenarios

2. Conducted dry run and debugged each scenario

3. Upgraded space medicine simulator to include resources consistent with International Space Station (ISS) medical checklist

4. Trained an actor to participate in the scenarios as injured crew member

5. Recruited 16 multidisciplinary teams (N = 60) to participate in the study

6. Gathered multimodal data (personality, physiological, video) for subsequent analysis.

The central objective of our proposal is to provide guidance for the development of evidence-based countermeasures against these vulnerabilities. This is important to determine so we can add the right behavioral skills to astronaut training. We plan to implement the study and measure interactions during a medical emergency in a space analog setting that replicates some features of long-term isolation, crew autonomy, and time-delay as experienced on long duration missions. We propose to do this by studying capacity to manage medical emergencies in space using a range of methods. We will use high fidelity simulation to study how the astronaut crew performs together to resolve simulated medical emergencies in a lab setting. We will measure adherence to key processes, team behavior, mental workload, and physiological metrics to better understand the demands faced by space crew and ground personnel.