Don’t let the eclipse ‘eclipse’ the rest: Military vision experts warn of dangers of improper solar eclipse viewingA member of the South Carolina National Guard tests her solar eclipse safety glasses. The glasses were distributed by the South Carolina National Guard Safety Office in preparation for the solar eclipse that will occur August 21, 2017. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Chelsea Baker)On August 21, 2017, millions of Americans will turn their eyes to the sky to witness one of the most amazing phenomena: a total solar eclipse. Jennifer Greene, a civilian who works at Whiteman Air Force Base in west central Missouri, will be right in the direct path of the full eclipse, one of the best viewing spots in the country.
“It’s very exciting!” said Greene, who plans to experience the eclipse at a local viewing event near her home with her 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter, as well as family members from North Carolina, Virginia, and Ohio who will trek to her home to see it as well. “It will be the first time in my life to see a full solar eclipse and probably the only time in my children’s lives they’ll be able to see something like this.”
This rare event of the moon lining up directly with the sun to cast a shadow will cover much of the U.S., including a large swath providing a 100-percent eclipse over the central part of the country, from coast to coast, starting in the west. It’ll be a sight to behold, but eye experts for the Military Health System warn looking directly at the sun and moon in transition could do some real damage.
“Don’t ever look at the sun! That’s our advice,” said Dr. David Eliason, an ophthalmologist and deputy director for the Department of Defense/Veterans Affairs Vision Center of Excellence located at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
His colleague, Dr. Felix Barker, works at the center’s office located in the Hefner VA Medical Center in Salisbury, North Carolina. He’s an optometrist and associate director for rehabilitation and research. Barker said most people don’t look at the sun directly because it’s too bright and the body naturally makes you look away. But during an eclipse, the sun is more shaded, making some think it’s ok to look directly at it.“What makes an eclipse dangerous is it starts to get dim, and you have this interest in seeing what it looks like,” said Barker. “So leading up to the full eclipse, you can tolerate it because it gets dimmer. But you still have that large area of the sun that can damage the retina.”
In fact, Barker said permanent damage to the retina can occur in just a matter of a few seconds. There is a moment during an eclipse when the moon is fully in front of the sun, meaning in theory it’s ok to look directly at it. But since someone would have to stare at the partially eclipsed sun before or after that fully eclipsed moment, the potential to do damage is there.
Both Barker and Eliason recommend specially designed solar eclipse viewing glasses that meet an international standard for protection (ISO 12312-2), a thousand times stronger than regular sunglasses and commercially available. Also, creating a pinhole camera – putting a pinhole in one sheet of paper and projecting the image of the eclipsing sun onto another piece paper – is a good way to see what’s happening. Eliason does not recommend using common welder glasses.
“The eyes are sensitive instruments that must be taken care of,” said Eliason. “While the temptation to stare at this rare event might be great, people need to think about long-term effects just a momentary look at the wrong time could cause."
Greene promised to watch the eclipse only through the special eclipse-viewing sunglasses. She expects a lot of other people at Whiteman will look to the skies on that Monday for at least a few minutes. She feels confident they’ll be watching it safely because they’ll want to have their vision, along with the memories, long into the future.
“It’s one of those things that you can’t put into words until you experience it,” said Greene. “I think it’s going to be a cool event!”
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Embedded Air Force researchers develop innovative battlefield medical technologyAir Force Chief Master Sgt. Robert Bean, a pararescue jumper, demonstrates how BATDOK can be worn on the wrist, providing awareness of the health status of multiple patients. Developing BATDOK required Air Force medical researchers to embed with pararescue jumpers on live missions to ensure the tool met the rigorous standards required by combat Airmen. (U.S. Air Force photo)FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Imagine the chaos and challenge of delivering life-saving care in a battlefield environment. That’s what faced a group of Air Force researchers as they developed a new electronic patient monitoring tool for use on the battlefield. Overcoming this challenge required an integrated development process, where the researchers left the lab, and embedded on missions with medical Airmen.
The technology they developed, the Battlefield Assisted Trauma Distributed Observation Kit, or BATDOK, is software than can run on a smartphone or other mobile devices, and draws patient information from a wide variety of commercially available, U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved sensors. It lets medics monitor multiple patients in the field, seeing vital information and managing multiple patients in a chaotic environment.
The integrated development process was critical to making BATDOK a tool that seamlessly integrates mobile capabilities for Airmen in the field, said Dr. Gregory Burnett, of the Airman Systems Directorate in the Warfighter Interface Division of the 711th Human Performance Wing. Burnett managed the development of BATDOK for the Air Force.
“BATDOK is a multi-patient, point of injury, casualty tool that assists our human operators and improves care,” said Burnett. “It can be a real-time health status monitoring for multiple patients, a documentation tool, a user-definable medical library, a portal to integrate patient data into their electronic health records, and finally it is interoperable with battlefield digital situation awareness maps, which helps identify the exact location of casualties.”
Burnett’s background is in computer engineering, with an emphasis in embedded electronics and mobile interfaces. This theoretical knowledge helped the Air Force Research Laboratory development team design the look and feel of BATDOK, but more intimate knowledge was needed for the tool to be most useful for operators in the field.
“We physically left the lab, got into the field with the operators, and observed firsthand the challenges and deficiencies they face,” said Burnett. “And when I say into the field, I mean we literally rode in the helicopters into hot landing zones, and observed medical Airmen stabilize and package up patients for transport and load them back on the helicopter.
“We see, at the point of injury, the challenges and limitations that our medical Airmen face. With those lessons learned and gaps identified through direct experience, we come back to the lab and devise innovative solutions to address the short falls we observed firsthand in the field.”
The integration didn’t stop once the BATDOK development team got back to their lab. They continued to interact with the operators from their deployment, and got their feedback throughout the process.
“From day one, every interface, every button, every menu, was user-validated by pararescue Airmen and combat rescue officers that were involved in the design, integration and testing process,” said Burnett. “Nothing is added without the explicit request and review by the operator.”
This brings first firsthand knowledge to the development process. The development team and the operators sit down and walk through the mission step-by-step. They identify areas where current technology can be improved, or where a gap exists, and then share ideas to innovate new solutions and capabilities.
This process helps the team identify requirements and avoid unforeseen downsides to new technology. Medical Airmen deploy with heavy loads, so can be cautious about adding new gear. Working so closely with the operator helps the team integrate BATDOK into the tactical ensemble.
“BATDOK was designed to not add any additional burden to battlefield Airmen’s tactical ensemble,” said Burnett. “From the beginning, we are designing to enhance capabilities, while aiding their survivability and lethality.”
“Being part of the Air Force gives us flexibility and firsthand, unfiltered access to operators and perspective on the challenges that Airmen face. This is true for both humanitarian and combat missions. Being able to observe in person is invaluable, and helps us contribute to the overall readiness mission.”
Disclaimer: Re-published content may have been edited for length and clarity. Read original post.
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