Technological Feasibility Assessment of Conducting Aeromedical Certification Exams using Telemedicine During Public Health Emergencies

During the public health emergency caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, pilots were unable to schedule medical examinations with Aviation Medical Examiners (AMEs), necessitating the FAA to extend arbitrarily the duration of medical certification for several months. This situation was undesirable because it removed one of the safeguards for ensuring human reliability in aerospace operations. A future public health emergency may prevent the accomplishment of the in-person AME medical certification exam visit for a sustained period, thereby potentially invalidating certification risk estimates made at the last medical certification exam. The Office of Aerospace Medicine seeks to leverage the general wave of innovation in telemedicine driven by the current public health emergency for application in support of aviation safety. This project addresses the question: what minimum set of existing telemedicine technologies and associated procedures provide the necessary data to address the maximum number of physical exam items on FAA Form 8500-8? This project will be accomplished through an open innovation challenge to identify proven / validated technologies for elements of the AME exam, culminating in a demonstration to FAA medical officers.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $215,000
• Contract Numbers:

  693KA8-22-C-00001

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Aviation Administration Office of Aerospace Medicine

  800 Independence Ave., SW
  DC, Washington  United States  20591
• Managing Organizations:

  Civil Aerospace Medical Institute-Federal Aviation Administration

  P.O. Box 25082
  Oklahoma City, OK  United States  73125
• Project Managers:

  Tvaryanas, Anthony

• Performing Organizations:

  Mitre

  7525 Colshire Drive
  McLean, VA  United States  22102-7539
• Principal Investigators:

  Campion, Francis

• Start Date: 20220916
• Expected Completion Date: 20230915
• Actual Completion Date: 20230731
• USDOT Program: Aeromedical Research

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aviation medicine; Certification; Medical equipment
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Research; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01860743
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Federal Aviation Administration
• Contract Numbers: 693KA8-22-C-00001
• Files: RIP, USDOT
• Created Date: Oct 8 2022 12:20PM