NASA and Google are building an AI medical assistant to keep Mars-bound astronauts healthy

As humanity prepares for longer journeys into space, the challenge of maintaining astronaut health becomes increasingly complex. Unlike the International Space Station, where crew members can easily consult with Earth-based medical professionals and receive timely supplies, missions to the Moon and Mars will require a new approach to healthcare. In response to this need, NASA, in collaboration with Google, is developing an innovative AI medical assistant called the Crew Medical Officer Digital Assistant (CMO-DA). This cutting-edge tool is designed to assist astronauts in diagnosing and treating medical issues when direct communication with Earth is unavailable. The CMO-DA operates within Google Cloud's Vertex AI framework, utilizing various input methods such as speech, text, and images. The project is being executed under a fixed-price agreement with Google, which covers cloud services, application development, and model training, as explained by David Cruley, a customer engineer at Google’s Public Sector division. NASA maintains ownership of the application's source code and has actively contributed to refining its models. The CMO-DA has undergone initial testing across three medical scenarios: ankle injury, flank pain, and ear pain. A team of three healthcare professionals, including an astronaut, assessed the AI's performance based on evaluation, history-taking, clinical reasoning, and treatment recommendations. The results were promising, showing diagnostic accuracy rates of 74% for flank pain, 80% for ear pain, and an impressive 88% for ankle injuries. Looking ahead, NASA plans to enhance the assistant's capabilities by incorporating additional data sources, such as medical devices, and training the model to be aware of unique space medicine conditions, including those related to microgravity. While there is no clear indication from Google about pursuing regulatory approval for this AI tool in terrestrial medical settings, the potential for its application on Earth could be significant, particularly as insights gained from space could translate to broader healthcare solutions.