Use of Space Technology in the Global Efforts to Enhance Health and Medical Services

Abstract

Space-Based Technology Applications to eHealth: Countries increasingly see good health as fundamental to human development and national prosperity. Space technology can contribute to the improvement of global health. The paper points out a few less well-known applications that have either had a great impact or have the potential to do so. They include, the key role of space-based telemetry in the control of river blindness, radiation protection, global disease surveillance, WHO's Strategic Health Operations Center (SHOC), disaster relief, ambulance video links, and malaria modeling. But there is much more that can be done in terms of spreading the benefits of the technology, in particular bridging the Digital Divide, which exists between north and south. We suggest three areas in which space technology can contribute to achieving target 18 of the Millennium Development Goals: connectivity - make channel capacity available for health purposes; develop human resources for health to alleviate the overall worldwide shortages of health professionals, which is further aggravated by migration of professionals for a variety of reasons, including the quest for greener pastures abroad; and informing both health professionals and citizens.