A comparison of the routine medical examination of pilots in 12 air forces

All air forces use routine medical examination to ensure the health of their pilots and flying safety. I compared pilot physicals in 12 air forces, and reviewed literature dealing mainly with routine medical examination of asymptomatic individuals. The discussion considers what should be done during the routine pilot examination to ensure flying safety, health and mission completion. General recommendations are given on ways to keep cost and effort within limits without failing to achieve the objective. Methods to achieve this include differentiating the intervals between examinations in different age groups and inclusion of procedures only beyond a certain age. Caution is advised when considering the inclusion of new procedures, and attention should be paid to whether such a test can be expected to produce unacceptable numbers of false positive results.