title: Space: The Final Frontier for IR.
abstract: A manned mission to Mars requires advanced on-board medical capabilities to address medical incidents that may arise during long-duration interplanetary spaceflight. As this role does not exactly match that of any single specialty, the ideal choice of physician is not immediately obvious. In this work, we review the considerable challenges of providing medical care in the austere conditions of interplanetary space travel and explain why an interventional radiologist may be well-equipped to deliver diagnostic and therapeutic care within these severely constrained conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Ave., M-391, San Francisco, CA 94143-0628.. Electronic address: apkansagra@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Akash P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Kansagra
authors.affiliation: Mike O'Callaghan Federal Medical Center, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
authors.forename: Thomas S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Shute
mesh_terms: D000337:Aerospace Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D018480:Astronauts; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D002983:Clinical Competence; D006801:Humans; D007587:Job Description; D018535:Mars; D010820:Physicians; D015641:Radiography, Interventional; D013026:Space Flight; D013038:Specialization; D014893:Weightlessness