Top Ten NASA Medical Spin-Offs



The following is my top ten list of NASA’s medical spin-offs. While people like to bash NASA once in awhile, innovation and development at NASA has resulted in many spin-offs in many areas. Most people in the United States do not realize the degree to which NASA has contributed to technological development in areas such as health and medicine, environment, public safety, consumer/home/recreation, transportation, computer technology and industrial productivity. With NASA just starting to gear up for the greatest exploration yet seen for mankind, a flight to Mars, new developments and innovations will be forth coming. NASA will once again contribute to our society in ways we only now can imagine. Lets examine NASA’s most important list of medical spin-offs.

  1. Laser Angioplasty
  2. This technology is used to vaporize arterial blockage without damaging the arterial wall. Physicians now have a very efficient tool for the removal of plaque without the need for coronary by-pass surgery.

  3. Cardiac Imaging System
  4. Used in conjunction with ballon angioplasty. Physicians can actually see what they are doing when using ballon angioplasty to remove blockage within an artery.

  5. Advanced Pacemaker
  6. The pacemaker can closely match the natural beating of the heart. These pacemakers can even be programmed by the physician in order to meet the specific needs of a particular patient.

  7. Implantable Heart Aid
  8. Called a Automatic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (AICD), these devices have saved many high risk cardiac patients. The AICD works by shocking the heart when it detects spontaneous heart arrhythmias, including those caused by ventricular fibrillation.

  9. Implantable and External Pumps
  10. A development for the insulin dependent diabetic. This implantable pump automatically maintains the proper sugar level by imitating the functionality of the pancreas. Diabetics that use this device do not need to give themselves insulin shots.

  11. Temperature Pill
  12. Because of the development of the miniaturization of circuitry, this small pill can telemeter body core temperature data back to a coil outside the body. Used in some medical procedures and in research.

  13. Infrared Thermometer
  14. Used to measure body temperature by measuring the temperature of the tympanic membrane inside the eardrum. The advantage of this technology is that it can measure temperature in 2 seconds or less. No longer do nurses need to put a thermometer under the tongue and wait 5 to 7 minutes.

  15. Thermal Video
  16. While x-rays can detect structural anomalies, thermography can detect functional abnormalities. Used as a diagnostic tool.

  17. Body Imaging
  18. Digital signal processing (DSP) was developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the mid-196Os. This technology is used in computer-aided tomography (CAT Scans) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

  19. Skin Damage Assessment
  20. This technology is used to determine the degree of tissue damage due to serious burns. More specifically burn depth. This method also incorporates the use of ultrasound technology which also was developed by NASA for detecting microscopic flaws in aircraft and spacecraft materials.

NASA has created many other medically related spin-offs and I will present these in the future as part of a series about NASA spinoffs. It is highly likely that the next time you have a medical procedure done, NASA was in some way directly or indirectly involved in the development of the technology needed.

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