NASA Seeking: Automated Medical Inventory System

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The Exploration Medical Integrated Product Team (XMIPT) at NASA is scoping out a new medical inventory system for use on future exploration missions. The goal of the system is to automate the recording of the medical inventory across multiple vehicles and habitats during space flight. This includes the tracking of medication, medical devices and other medical equipment on board.

Background

Currently, NASA relies on manual efforts to manage and maintain the medical inventory system on the International Space Station. When an equipment or medication is used, it requires a crew member to manually notify the ground operational teams to update the database. As time goes by, the database may become less accurate if someone fails to report the inventory correctly. The ability to maintain an accurate inventory becomes more critical for future long duration missions where resupply opportunities will be more limited.

To address the problem, XMIPT is seeking novel hardware and software solutions for determining the quantity and availability of medical system devices and consumables within a spaceflight vehicle or habitat with minimal crew interaction.

Constraints

The Medical Inventory System Should

Be highly automated with minimized manual interaction
Detect and report the quantity of a broad range of equipment and medications with high accuracy
Easy for crew and ground teams to use
Solutions that are commercially available or near commercial availability are preferred but not essential
Easy to integrate with internal or external database containing device and consumable specific information

Possible Solution Areas include (but are not limited to):