Air Chief Marshal stresses on importance of aerospace medicine

Bangalore, Sep 11 (UNI) Aerospace medicine, the multi-disciplinary science that incorporates tenets of several disciplines of medicine, can ensure the right bondage between man and machine, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi said today.

Speaking after inaugurating the 54th International Congress of Aviation and Space Medicine here, he said that both in civilian and military fields of aviation industry, witnessing an unprecedented growth, the role of aerospace medicine had assumed great importance.

The Air Chief Marshal said that with the flying machines becoming more and more sophisticated, powerful in performance and complex in design and highly manoeuvrable, its limits would have to be contained to the limits of human endurance, both physical and psychological. Supporting the aviator's psychological and physiological endurance to meet the demands of newer machines was a critical role that aerospace specialists were performing, he added.

The IAF chief said that with the advent of highly manoeuvrable and long duration aircraft, nutrition, hydration, controlling the pressure trauma, decompression signals and disorientation would have to be handled with highly skilled aerospace medicine experts.

''Your contribution in identifying all possible factors that may affect the pilots is the need of the hour. You have to ensure fitness of aircrew laid down by the highest international standards.

We should be able to recognise early the symptoms of critical attention deficit of the pilots and train them suitably,'' he told the aerospace doctors.

In his presidential address, Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine President Air Marshal H K Maini said concepts and challenges were evolving regularly in aerospace medicine. It was becoming more evidence-based and evidence-quoted like in any other branch of medicine.

Neo clinical technology was also evolving. Regrouping of existing policies and standards in air traffic control was helping to a great extent to ensure the operational and flying safety in both civil and military aircraft. Development of aerospace medicine, both in civilian and military fields, was in the domain of the IAF. The Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Bangalore and the Air Force Medical Establishment based in Delhi were playing an important role in developing and implementing quality, regulation, training and research in aerospace medicine, he added.

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