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Navy & Marine Corps Medical News (MN-00-22) - June 2, 2000
The Navy Bureau of medicine and Surgery distributes Navy and Marine Corps Medical News (MEDNEWS) to Sailors and Marines, their families, civilian employees and retired Navy and Marine Corps families.
MEDNEWS is a weekly compendium of news and information contributed by commands throughout the Navy Medical department. Information contained in MEDNEWS stories is not necessarily endorsed by BUMED, nor should it be considered official Navy policy.
To achieve maximum medical information distribution, your command is highly encouraged to distribute MEDNEWS to ALL HANDS electronically, include MEDNEWS in command newspapers, newsletters and radio and TV news programs.
Stories in MEDNEWS use these abbreviations after a Navy medical professional’s name to show affiliation: MC - Medical Corps (physician); DC - Dental Corps; NC - Nurse Corps; MSC - Medical Service Corps (clinicians, researchers and
administrative managers). Hospital Corpsmen (HM) and Dental Technician (DT) designators are placed in front of their names.
Headline: Great Lakes doctor brings life to space age medical technology:
By Lt. Youssef H. Aboul-Enein, MSC, Naval Hospital Great Lakes
GREAT LAKES, ILL -- Many of us sat in front of the television enthralled watching the Star Trek series and marveled at how “Bones” healed wounds using a laser from a pocket-size emitter.
A member of Navy Medicine is bringing this type of
technology to life in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Cmdr. Harry Whelan, MC, a reservist drilling at Naval Hospital Great Lakes, who is also a pediatric neurologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, is researching methods to clot blood in zero gravity using technology developed in conjunction with NASA.
The Light-Emitting-Diode (LED) has been available for many years, but recently the research team developed LEDs that are three times brighter than the sun and have been altered to be medically-safe and at a near infrared wavelength.
Wound healing in space:
"Astronauts have to be very careful in space, minor injuries typically do not heal until they land," said Whelan.
He said that a cells mitochondria (energy source) does not function as efficiently in zero gravity and this leads to a variety of risks to an injured astronaut.
The concept of the new technology is to boost the
efficiency of the mitochondria by irradiating them with red and infrared light. This stimulates the cell to produce key chemicals called cytochromes.
NASA, in collaboration with Whelan and an engineering firm based in Wisconsin, has developed an LED that illuminates cultured cells and causes
fibroblasts and muscles to grow five times faster.
"[By] combining this with treating wounds in high-pressure oxygen chambers and various growth-inducing chemicals, we provide a routine way for space travelers and those aboard
space stations to heal their wounds and prevent muscle and bone loss during extended times in outer space," said Whelan.
Navy SEALs take an interest:
Naval Special Warfare Command has also added their support to Whelan's research and the wound-healing potential of LED light.
"In isolated regions and in the world of unconventional warfare, injuries can potentially be quickly healed so the mission can be pursued," said Whelan.
The future may see a SEAL hospital corpsman with this technology shrunk to a hand-held apparatus to heal some battlefield injuries. Another option may equip an LED-machine on a helicopter and begin the healing process while the wounded Sailor, Marine or Soldier is in enroute to a treatment
facility.
Another potential application is aboard submarines, where crewmembers can use LED arrays to combat muscle atrophy during relative periods of inactivity.
Lt. James Caviness, MC, went from Great Lakes to Commander Submarine Squadron ELEVEN, where he was able to have the technology deployed aboard USS Salt Lake City (SSN 716) for field testing.
"Professional sports teams may also see this technology as a way to get players back on the field quicker," said Whelan.
Cancer Treatment:
In May and August 1999, Whelan used this technology to treat brain cancer patients successfully here on earth. This led NASA to further fund the program.
Whelan has Food and Drug Administration approval to use the LED probe on a trial basis in the removal of children's brain tumors. Whelan's technique is to inject the patient's bloodstream with a light-activated drug, which attaches to and
permeates unwanted tissues leaving surrounding tissues unaffected. Once activated by light the drug destroys tumor cells, leaving the tender brain stem tissues virtually untouched.
Navy Physician Inducted into NASA's Hall of Fame:
At the National Space Symposium held in April, Whelan and his colleagues were inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame for their research putting LEDs into medical practice.
NASA has already flown LED technology aboard several space shuttle flights to experiment with muscle regeneration.
When working at Naval Hospital Great Lakes, Whelan
conducts dive physicals at USS TRANQUILLITY Branch Medical Clinic for recruits seeking a career in the SEALs, submarines or as an underwater diver.
The story was written with assistance from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Marshall Space Flight Center.
but there are some good ideas here and it's NOW tech 
(for all the low TL gearhounds).
