Level Ex® Receives Prestigious Grant from the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) to help NASA Improve Medical Care During Space Missions

CHICAGO, August 7, 2019 — Level Ex, creator of industry-leading medical video games for physicians, today announced it has received a significant grant from the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) to build a virtual human simulation framework for NASA. Level Ex will simulate the human body’s anatomical and physiological changes in space, demonstrate how medical devices and procedures function differently in microgravity, and create high-fidelity simulations of the spacecraft environment. Level Ex will expand on this framework to recreate spaceflight medical scenarios for astronauts to train prior to space missions.

Astronauts can experience changes in the structure and function of the heart, eyes, vascular system, and other parts of the body due to prolonged exposure to space conditions. These significant transformations create a need for new methods to effectively understand spaceflight-induced physiological changes and their impact on medical procedures.

“TRISH is dedicated to adopting the most advanced terrestrial technologies that have the potential to address NASA’s future space health challenges,” said Dr. Aenor Sawyer, TRISH’s Chief Health Innovation Officer. “We identified Level Ex as having advanced capabilities in data-driven simulation and rendering of virtual patients and devices across platforms that are unmatched in the simulation ecosystem. By adapting their technology to include space conditions, we will lay the foundation for essential medical training and future real-time autonomous guidance for astronauts.”

Currently, if a health issue occurs on a spacecraft, astronauts convey pertinent medical information to NASA’s medical team in Mission Control who provides critical directives. Deep space exploration will cause a 40-minute delay on any communication with Mission Control, which can lead to further complications should a medical emergency occur. This grant will provide Level Ex with the resources to create a foundation for improving astronauts’ abilities to respond to and handle medical emergencies in space, taking into account gravity’s impact on the human body and using the framework to reduce reliance on ground communications.

“We are honored that TRISH has put their trust in us to use our technology to advance medical training for astronauts,” said Sam Glassenberg, CEO and founder of Level Ex. “With half a million medical professionals already playing our medical games, we’re eager to apply the work we’ve done to another critically important area of healthcare. Not only do I foresee this partnership shaping the future of spaceflight medicine, but there is no doubt that our discoveries and advancements will make Level Ex’s technology more robust, which will benefit terrestrial medical education across the board.”

The TRISH grant provides 12 months of funding toward developing the initial framework. This framework will provide the basis to support various modules that will train and educate astronauts around specific medical scenarios in space and how to address them.

To learn more about Level Ex and its medical video games, please visit them online at www.level-ex.com. To learn more about TRISH and its research efforts for NASA, please visit them at their website.

About Level Ex

Level Ex creates industry-leading mobile, AR and VR games for physicians. The company uses state-of-the-art video game technology and cognitive neuroscience to capture the challenges of practicing medicine—revolutionizing the way physicians keep up-to-speed on rare and challenging cases, new medical devices, and drug therapies to stay sharp in their specialties. The company’s medical video games, played by 500,000 healthcare professionals and leveraged by top 20 pharmaceutical and medical device companies and medical societies, offer CME credits and are available free on the App Store and Google Play. Find out more at www.level-ex.com and follow them on Twitter @LevelEx.

About the Translational Research Institute for Space Health

The Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) leads a national effort in translating cutting-edge terrestrial research into applied risk mitigation strategies for the human exploration of deep space. TRISH works in partnership with NASA’s Human Research Program through a cooperative agreement. The institute is a consortium led by Baylor College of Medicine and includes the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Learn more about the Translational Research Institute for Space Health.

Media Contacts:
Rosie Hale for Level Ex
press@level-ex.com

Jessica Wolter (on behalf of Level Ex)
Matter Communications
levelex@matternow.com

Rachael Dempsey for Translational Research Institute for Space Health
Communications and Education Officer
Rachael.Dempsey@bcm.edu