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Medical and Clinical

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Astronaut eye exam
Astronaut eye exam for STS-135 mission
NASA

The Human Health and Performance (HH&P) Medical and Clinical teams provide specialty medical care as well as occupational and industrial health services to the civil servant, contractor, and astronaut populations at Johnson Space Center (JSC) and its satellite facilities. This includes occupational, aerospace, dive, travel, and preventive medicines to ensure the health, productivity and wellness of JSC team members through the recognition, evaluation, control and elimination of illness and disease associated with the work environment.

Facilities and locations within coverage include JSC, Ellington Field, Sonny Carter Training Facility/Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL), White Sands Test Facility (WSTF), El Paso Forwarding Location, and NASA Russian Operations. 

fit test
Industrial Hygienist Sherm Teuscher conducts a fit test on respirator user David Rose in the Occupational Health Office in Building 229.

Providing a Variety of Services

Functional areas include the Occupational Medicine Clinic, the Flight Medicine Clinic, the Test Subject Screening (TSS) Group, the Human Test Support Group, the Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health (LSAH) Group, the Clinical Laboratories, the Employee Assistance Program, and Occupational Health Services. The Occupational Medicine Program provides Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) job-related physical examinations and is responsible for the evaluation and treatment of work-related injuries or illnesses. The Flight Medicine Program provides occupational and aerospace medicine to active astronauts and Aircraft Operations Division (AOD) flight crewmembers. The TSS Group has the primary responsibility to provide qualified test subjects for ground-based research or microgravity studies. The LSAH is an element of NASA’s Astronaut Occupational Health Program (AOHP) that screens and monitors astronauts for occupationally-related injury or disease.  

Astronauts Stan Love and Steve Bowen practice climbing out of the Orion spacecraft in the NBL at JSC.

Protecting the JSC Community

The JSC Clinical Laboratories are comprised of two labs: Clinical and Microbiology. The Clinical Laboratory is responsible for the analysis of human blood, urine, or other fluids in the areas of hematology, chemistry, immunology, and urinalysis. The Microbiology Laboratory is responsible for the identification of bacteria, fungi, and parasites in human specimens. Another important part of protecting the JSC community is through the Occupational Heath Services this team provides. These services include:

  • Industrial hygiene; 
  • Environmental surveillance; 
  • Radiological health and safety; 
  • Hazard communication;
  • Health training;
  • Hearing Conservation;
  • Chemical management;
  • Ergonomics; 
  • and emergency operations support to all of JSC.
Spacewalk training at the NBL
Astronaut Expedition 39/40 (Soyuz 38) astronaut Steve Swanson during ISS Maintenance EVAAT at the NBL
NASA

Points of Contact

Ronak Shah
Gary Beven

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Last Updated
Jun 20, 2023
Editor
Robert E. Lewis