Non-Invasive Monitoring of Ocular Health in Space

32.4 Conclusions

The eye is a window to the body. Fully utilizing the opportunities provided by this fact promises insights into easily and accurately assessing health, and diagnosing departures from health early in the natural history of disease. Regarding the rigors of deep space travel, this capability will create opportunities to detect a number of potentially debilitating diseases before the onset of irreversible damage.

We have presented the concept of an advanced instrument that integrates several non-invasive optical techniques that have been successfully demonstrated, or are currently under development in clinical and/or laboratory settings. These techniques are readily interfaced with the computer technology that by transmitting information from remote sites makes celestial teleophthalmology a reality.

Early diagnosis and prevention (rather than just cure) of disease is a critical direction for medicine in the 21st century. Technologies that are found to be useful in monitoring astronaut health in space may have great utility and value on Earth. In addition to the celestial teleophthalmic applications described above, it is possible that our compact, non-invasive, and multi-purpose diagnostic devices will be used for regular health monitoring by today’s health-conscious consumers in settings of their choice, such as homes, offices, gymnasiums, drive-throughs, and shopping malls. Governments and health care agencies may further find useful applications for using such devices to extend health care to under-served areas of the world. This form of terrestrial teleophthalmology will also provide a powerful device for use in identifying diseases not adequately diagnosed and/or treated (e.g., diabetes in the US) in so-called advanced care settings.