Space4Health
Summary
The S4H project focused on the use of space applications to support public health during and after natural disasters. In the context of this project, I managed and facilitated the activities of a team of 30 international students and professionals from 14 countries during the SSP.
About the Project
As part of the Space Studies Program 2014, a team project was proposed focused on Space for Public Health. In this context, a team of about 30 international individuals were put together to develop a project around this broad topic.
After many discussions, the group decided to focus on use of disruptive innovation (from but not limited to space) in support of public health during natural disasters. We had 3 weeks to put our idea together into a coherent whole which we successfully did.
The concept relies on an integrated solution based on the following assets:
- Space assets in the form of nanosattelite used for observation and communication
- Mobile ground segments as a means of providing a hub for data collection, processing and communication while at the same time providing a local source of aid
- Swarms of robots used for local exploration of disaster regions and identification of site safety
- Wearables as a means of tagging identified victims and monitoring their vitals at the disaster site
The concept was generally well received and featured on the cover of the Journal for Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.
Achievements
- Presentation of a novel integrated approach to manage assets available during disasters to promote public health and safety
- One journal publication in the Journal of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness which reached the cover of the journal
- A report along with presentations and conference papers for IAC 2014, RAST 2015 and a short article for Space Times on our ideas
- Extension of the concept to monitoring public health effects of hydraulic fracking
Select Publications
- Farhan M. Asrar, Annie Hui Wen, S. Ali Nasseri, Petros C. Dinas, Cory Newman, Angie Bukley, Kevin Crist, Dennis Irwin, “Space technologies for monitoring health and environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing”, The Lancet Planetary Health, vol. 2, issue 11, pp. e469-e470, 2018, doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(18)30223-7. [joint first author]
- P. C. Dinas*, C. Mueller*, N. Clark*, T. Elgin*, S. A. Nasseri*, E. Yaffe*, J. B. Clark, S. Madry and F. M. Asrar, “Innovative Methods to Benefit Public Health Using Space Technology During Disaster Relief”, Journal for Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, vol. 9 (3), pp. 319-328, 2015, doi: 10.1017/dmp.2015.29. [joint first author, paper highlighted on the cover of the journal, and received dedicated editorial]
