What is a Flight Surgeon?
A flight surgeon is a doctor with training and knowledge in aviation, space medicine, and aeromedicine. Flight surgeons provide medical assistance to astronauts and aviators in the before flight training exercises for proper preparation and, the surgeons help maintain health throughout the flight missions. Their number one objective is to be certain that their aviator is physically and mentally fit to partake in the extreme stipulations that flying offers. Beyond the medicine, it is also a major responsibility to advocate for safe environmental conditions for the aviators and astronauts on Earth or in space. When a medical problem does occur, the flight surgeon provides the necessary medical care whether using telemedicine for astronauts hundreds of miles away or giving a routine medical evaluation and certification to determine flight readiness.
What is Aerospace Medicine?
Aerospace medicine involves the determination and preservation of the health, safety, and performance of persons involved in air and space travel. Aerospace medicine offers dynamic challenges and opportunities for physicians, nurses, physiologists, bioenvironmental engineers, industrial hygienists, environmental health practitioners, human factors specialists, psychologists, and other professionals. Those in the field are devoted to enhancing health, promoting safety, and improving performance of individuals who work or travel in unusual environments. The environments of space and aviation provide significant challenges, such as microgravity, radiation exposure, G-forces, emergency ejection injuries, and hypoxic conditions for those embarking in their exploration. Areas of interest range from space and atmospheric flight to undersea activities, and the environments that are studied cover a wide spectrum.
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