A clinical decision support tool from Wolters Kluwer has reached the final frontier.
NASA is piloting Wolters Kluwer’s UpToDate solution on board the International Space Station. The tool gives clinicians medical information such as expert-written recommendations that can be used at the point of care. Its features include patient education information, medical calculators, drug interaction information and more.
More specifically, NASA is utilizing UpToDate MobileComplete, which allows individuals to use the UpToDate tool without a WiFi or network connection. This is particularly fitting given that internet connectivity is limited on the ISS. All the UpToDate content is downloaded to an iPad, giving astronauts access to clinical content.
“For over a quarter-century, UpToDate has served as the world’s most trusted clinical decision support resource” Denise Basow, CEO of clinical effectiveness at Wolters Kluwer, Health, said in a statement. “Now, we are proud to be used on the ISS, 250 miles (403 kilometers) above the earth’s surface.”
It’s not the first time the healthcare industry and the space agency have overlapped.
An initiative called the Collaborative Health Innovation Platform (CHIP) was announced at the SXSW conference earlier this year. It seeks to use machine learning to create a database to match startups with investors like health systems and NASA. CHIP was created with a grant from the Translational Research Institute for Space Health, which is funded by NASA.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Additionally, Ejenta, a startup that was in Dreamit Health’s fall 2017 cohort, has developed remote monitoring technology for NASA to track the health of astronauts on the ISS.
Photo: Pr3t3nd3r, Getty Images
