Recent commercial space missions have opened up new avenues for conducting health research on the impact of space travel on civilian astronauts. Unlike clinical research on earth, conducting research activities in space presents unique challenges. Solutions to these challenges could potentially have broad applicability for conducting decentralized clinical trials on earth. In this webinar a panel of invited space health researchers and clinical trials industry leaders will discuss:
- The current state of space health research in commercial space missions.
- Constraints faced in implementing remote data collection in space.
- Promising remote data collection devices/technologies being used in space health research.
- Challenges faced in conducting decentralized clinical trials here on earth.
- How can space health research provide a blueprint for decentralized clinical trials on earth?
- How EXPAND – an open space health research database – used by the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) is pushing the envelope of research?
Speakers
Jimmy Wu
Senior Biomedical Engineer, Translational Research Institute for Space Health
Jimmy Wu is the Senior Biomedical Engineer for the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH). Jimmy looks to push the frontier of technology and engineering for addressing human system risk in spaceflight. Jimmy’s role with TRISH also includes team lead of medical technology projects and managing biomedical research to be conducted on commercial spaceflight missions. Jimmy is a faculty member at Baylor College of Medicine Center for Space Medicine (CSM) and associate director of the Exploration Medicine Laboratory with the focus of using technology and engineering solutions to provide medical care in space. With CSM, Jimmy develops, evaluates, and integrates technologies that will reduce human system risk during exploration spaceflight missions. Previously, Jimmy worked at NASA Johnson Space Center for fourteen years providing engineering, integration, operations, research and development, information technology, and project management support to projects addressing human health and performance during space flight missions. Projects include support of the medical kits for Space Shuttle and International Space Station; planning of the medical kits for exploration-class missions for NASA’s Human Research Program, Exploration Medical Capabilities element; and hardware and operational support to understand the newly discovered Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS).
Kathy Johnson Throop
Space Health Data Systems Consultant
Kathy received a PhD in Computer Science with studies in Artificial Intelligence from The Ohio State University. She is currently a consultant for data systems, specifically those managing data resulting from clinical care and medical research in space. She worked for 14 years at NASA as an Enterprise Architect and Branch Chief for the Information Systems Architecture Branch as well as the Medical Informatics and Healthcare Systems Branch in the Human Health and Performance Directorate. She supported NASA’s mission by providing expertise in enterprise architecture, data modeling, and data analytics that empowered personnel to collect and utilize data for understanding and monitoring how spaceflight affects humans. She also served as Assistant Professor in the School of Health Informatics, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at The Ohio State University.
Kimberly Jenkins
Research Administrator, Cleveland Clinic
Kimberly is a clinical research professional with a passion for patient care and developing teams that thrive. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the clinical research field. She began her career in clinical research in 2003 at Columbia University’s Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. She began as a clinical research coordinator and then managed the adult and pediatric Hematology/Oncology research program. In 2010 she departed from academia and worked at a handful of medical start-ups and small businesses. There she learned a lot, learned to “fail fast” and discovered that her true calling was back in the world of clinical research, working closely with patients. Most recently, she accepted a Research Administrator position at the Center for Clinical Research at the Cleveland Clinic focusing on Endocrine and Metabolism clinical research. Kim has a Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire and a Master’s Degree in nonprofit management from Columbia University.
Sharib Khan
CEO & Co-founder, TrialX Inc.
Sharib Khan is a Biomedical Informatics Entrepreneur, who combines his passion for the application of computers in healthcare, with his belief in startups as vehicles for change. As Co-founder and Product Lead at TrialX, he is responsible for developing and executing the product development vision. Sharib holds a Masters in Biomedical Informatics from Columbia University and an MD from the University of Medical Sciences, Delhi University. An Iyengar Yoga enthusiast, he can be found teaching yoga classes or doing headstands, when not brainstorming clinical trials technologies.
