[Transfer of space technology to the field of medicine]

In the context of its technology transfer programme, the European Space Agency (ESA) has decided to examine in greater detail the medical applications of space technological developments. There are several sectors in which space technologies have already been successfully used in biomedical apparatuses, in Europe and in North America. The ESA has therefore set up a team designed, among other things, to promote exchanges between the space industry and the world of medicine. Encouraging results have already been obtained and the medical sector shows an increasing interest in this initiative, particularly in the fields of surgery, anaesthesia, radiology and telemedicine. The ESA therefore envisages the creation of a nonprofit association to extend the actions which it has carried out experimentally over the last two years to the whole of Europe and to all medical disciplines.