NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

A surgeon at a Canadian hospital helped perform a mock gallbladder operation in an underwater habitat off the Florida Keys used to train astronauts.

Renowned heart surgeon Michael E. DeBakey watched the proceedings from the Exploration Planning Operations Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Image left: Renowned medical pioneer Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, who visited the Johnson Space Center on October 18, pays a virtual visit to the crew of NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 7. Credit: NASA

Three astronauts, two from the U.S. and one a Canadian, along with a Canadian physician in the underwater habitat did the hands-on part of the telerobotic technology test. They and other astronauts could benefit from the tests by having available to them more advanced medical care during space missions.

Dr. Mehran Anvari, director of the Center for Minimal Access Surgery (CMAS) at St. Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, led the demonstration. It was aimed at showing the concept's potential for treating astronauts on deep space missions.

Image right: NEEMO-7 Commander Robert B. Thirsk performs laparoscopic surgery on a training model. The project goal is to evaluate the use of tele-mentoring and tele-robotics in performing emergency diagnostic, surgical and interventional therapies in a confined environment, as found in space flight. Credit: NASA

The mock operation was part of the 11-day NEEMO 7 expedition. NEEMO stands for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations. Astronauts, other NASA employees and contractors live in a bus-sized underwater habitat called Aquarius 60 feet under the surface of the Atlantic off the Florida Keys. In and outside of Aquarius, NEEMO crewmembers face some of the same hazards and challenges astronauts see in space.

"Astronauts navigating between planets won't be able to turn around and come home when someone gets sick, and this undersea mission will help chart a course for long-distance healing that can span such vast distances," said NEEMO Mission Director Bill Todd. "Aquarius, with its physical and psychological isolation on the floor of the Atlantic, will provide the real stresses needed to validate telemedicine in an extreme environment."

Image left: From JSC's Experimental Planning and Operations Center, Dr. Michael DeBakey (bottom right) talked with the crew and saw a demonstration of the remote telesurgery experiments in the Aquarius underwater lab off the coast of Florida. Credit: NASA

DeBakey, chancellor emeritus of Baylor College of Medicine, watched the remote medicine tests and talked with NEEMO crewmembers. DeBakey himself is a pioneer in telemedicine and a long-time collaborator with NASA. He worked with NASA engineers to develop a lifesaving heart assist device for coronary patients, based on the Space Shuttle fuel pump.