NASA program seeks collaborators for research, public health projects
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Key takeaways:
- NASA Health and Air Quality explores the connections between the environment and human and animal health.
- The program fosters interdisciplinary approaches to address environmental challenges in public health.
WASHINGTON — Representatives from NASA attended the American Thoracic Society International Conference to discuss its Health and Air Quality program and highlight the availability of its data for research and other collaborations.
“We promote the use of Earth observations to explore an array of environmental health topics including air pollution, vector-borne disease transmission, extreme temperatures and the impact of land use changes on public health,” Helena Chapman, MD, MPH, PhD, associate product manager for health and air quality applications in the Applied Sciences Program of the NASA Earth Sciences Division, told Healio.
The interconnectedness between human beings, animals and the environment, as well as how the delicate balance in the ecosystem impacts human and animal health, is one part of the One Health concept, Chapman said.
“The second element is that in order to address some of these complex challenges, such as the effects of our changing ecosystems, we’ll need to work together outside of our silos to develop robust scientific inquiry and integrate innovative methods, designs and data products for timely interventions that safeguard population health,” she said.
During the conference, speakers discussed previous multidisciplinary projects that incorporated NASA resources to better understand public health risks, such as efforts to develop decision-support tools to monitor aerosols from the effects of African dust storms in Puerto Rico, prepare drought and global groundwater maps with rainfall measurements in the Southwest and help with grazing management across landscapes in Mongolia.
Other interested parties regardless of their specialty are welcome to collaborate with NASA on similar programs that will have an impact on public health.
“Each discipline is trained with their own toolkit,” Chapman said. “This offers an opportunity for NASA scientists to work with scientists, clinicians, practitioners and other stakeholders in the field to identify pressing needs within the community, domestically or internationally, and work together with community partners to provide relevant information that can help improve their decision-making activities.”
Chapman recognized that clinical organizations like the American Thoracic Society have unique expertise and perspectives when it comes to their clients, stakeholders and partners and that they can contribute their knowledge and skills to the umbrella of global health challenges. NASA, meanwhile, offers data products and other unique scientific perspectives about how the Earth’s systems are changing.
“Being able to integrate these perspectives will allow us to build a holistic view of how Earth is changing and the impact of these changes on human and animal health,” Chapman said.
For example, NASA supports the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Health Community of Practice, which is a global network of governments, organizations and observers that aims to use environmental observations to improve health decision-making at international, regional, national and district levels.
“We support a community practice with that exact purpose – to be able to unite those individuals who are actively using or interested in using Earth observations and offer a platform for discussion about data integration to improve health decision-making across sectors,” Chapman said.
Community education and engagement represents another one of the program’s goals, Chapman said.
“I was trained as a physician and a public health practitioner, and although I knew that Earth observation data existed, I was unaware of their overall value to public health and societal benefit,” she said.
“Now, as our team supports robust projects within our NASA Health and Air Quality portfolio, I am passionate to promote this information to the medical and public health community,” she said.
NASA offers more information about the Health and Air Quality program including free courses from the NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training Program on how to access and interpret NASA satellite images. Chapman also encouraged the global community to contribute their expertise to networking groups, such as the GEO Health Community of Practice.