Intelligent Medical System for NASA SITUATION:  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is faced with many difficult tasks supporting human life in space. Primary among these is the practice of medicine. A Mars mission will have communication delays of up to 40 minutes making emergency support difficult. The International Space Station (ISS) has limited resources and communication blackouts that also make current techniques of telemedicine impractical in emergencies due to the tele-presence requirement of a practicing physician. Intelligent medical systems will need to be devised to support these efforts. Current technologies have developed to where a combination of different artificial intelligent methodologies can be used together to fuse the data from multiple heterogeneous sources, creating a diagnosis and treatment path. This path will coach and/or assist a relatively unsophisticated user to complete emergency treatment. The system can be used in both "sickbay" and remote environments. It must be able to work with delayed Earth support as well as stand alone in cases of emergencies and communication failure. A new vision and framework for advanced technological support in medicine is needed that specifically addresses the communications constraints during the long space flight and the subsequent Mars-based mission. It must address long-term mission medical requirements by proposing a distributed intelligent system that can function as a stand-alone system for emergencies as well as function with the Earth-based NASA medical team for other non-emergency related treatments. WHAT WE DID:  Intellas has designed and is developing an Intelligent Medical System where a combination of different artificial intelligent methodologies are used together to fuse the data from multiple heterogeneous sources, creating a diagnosis and treatment path. This path will coach and/or assist a relatively unsophisticated user to complete emergency treatment. The system can be used in both "sickbay" and remote environments. It will be able to work with delayed Earth support as well as stand alone in cases of emergencies and communication failure. Intellas has been awarded a Phase 1 project as a proof of concept for the artificial intelligence infrastructure that will be required for the foundation of such a system. This system will be able to grow and adapt to new devices and techniques as technology changes allowing the system's knowledgebase to continually advance. Our design addresses long-term mission medical requirements by proposing a distributed intelligent system that can function as a stand-alone system for emergencies as well as function with the Earth-based NASA medical team for other non-emergency related treatments. Our approach will result in a "Customized Diagnosis System" for astronauts because of the use of an individual's specific data model rather than a generic expected value for healthy persons as a reference. This is a key in creating an artificial intelligence architecture that is feasible with current technologies. (Diagnosis from a generic model will only become possible after numerous individuals and treatments have been entered over many years.) This customization will be an advantage for assisting the NASA medical team in the diagnosis of medical problems that may occur uniquely in space travel or Martian environments. RESULTS:  This project is still in development and will be for a number of years. The impact on the space program will be minimal compared to the impact that such a system will have upon society. The initial adaptation from NASA use would be for use by the United States Military. Forward deployed field medics and physician assistants will be able to provide rapid expert care to casualties beyond their current abilities. This could help relieve the scarcity of doctors on the battlefield and in the Naval fleet. It will also help contribute to the lofty goal of our military for soldiers to "self heal." The use of such a system may also be used for United Nations or other such remote missions where professional health care does not exist. Testing at the Antarctic science station would be ideal for proving the system. The system could also be used by organizations such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide disaster relief. Another adaptation could be for civilian use by paramedics to perform more extensive care. It could also be used by clinics and emergency rooms to expand the capabilities of the staff to perform more procedures. This would provide a great social benefit by providing low-cost health care to those who may not be able to afford health insurance. It may even become available to most any individual similar to the recent approval of publicly available defibrillation devices.