Medical Operations Decision Support System

Risks associated with possible medical events during space missions are challenging to identify and manage. Resources must be applied judiciously and risk must not be ignored. NASA's researchers need the capability to identify the risks that arise from the potential medical events, gather all of the published evidence that is available, analyze the probability and severity of the risks, plan to mitigate the risks, investigate the interdependencies between risks and mitigation strategies, track and control the information, and support informed decisions about risks and risk mitigation strategies. S&K Aerospace (SKA) proposes an innovative Web-based system to support the continuous management of medical risk for future space missions. We propose to provide users with the ability to create and maintain a repository of medical risk information, including information about the probability of the risks and the severity of the outcomes. Users will be able to associate outside data with the risk information to support the decisions made regarding the risks. Users will also be able to plan mitigation strategies for the risks, to plan risk mitigation strategies across multiple missions, and to balance the interactions between risk mitigation strategies on a single mission. A continuous risk management system requires that the risks be re-evaluated as contributing factors change, as additional information is learned about the probabilities and consequences of the risks, and simply as time passes.

Non-NASA commercial applications include risk assessment and risk mitigation planning in any of a wide range of arenas, including business and project management. The project can be developed in any of a number of different ways, including a generalized risk assessment and management system, or a toolkit for building domain-specific risk management applications.

This product will support NASA researchers in the identification and analysis of medical risks for future manned space mission, as well as planning, tracking, and controlling the risk mitigation strategies that will be used to handle those risks.

This is a mature technology (TRL 8) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.