Selection of Medications for the International Space Station: The Space Medicine Patient Condition Database

Medical care available to astronauts on the International Space Station has been affected by limitations on funding, space and weight availability, and crew training. A Space Medicine Patient Condition Database (PCDB) was designed to enhance inventory control, resource selection, protocol standardization, evidence-basedmedicine, on-orbit diagnos-tic skills, and materiel management. The first step in the PCDB creation was the identification of the medical condi-tions anticipated among the astronaut population in the flight environment. Military databases, previous spaceflight experience, and analog populations were used to create this listing. The PCDB then linked these individual conditions with the current resources available on orbit to treat them. Other features include a resource gauge, item location infor-mation, diagnosis coding, and built-in reference capabilities