Aerospace Medicine Literature

Sometimes, tracking down the various regulations, source documents and educational literature required to competently practice aerospace medicine can be frustrating.  A comprehensive list of required and suggested reading for any flight surgeon or aviation medical examiner will be kept continually up to date at this location.  The historical texts are a fascinating read for any physician interested in the history of military and/or aviation medicine.  Whenever possible, links to where you can either access or purchase the particular writing is provided.

 

TEXTBOOKS

 

• 

  Davis: Fundamentals of Aerospace Medicine

  Fundamentals of Aerospace Medicine (4 Ed.)– April 16, 2008 by Jeffrey R. Davis MD MS, Robert Johnson MD MPH MBA, Jan Stepanek MD MPH, Jennifer A. Fogarty PhD
  ISBN-13: 978-0781774666 ISBN-10: 0781774667

 

 

 

 

 

• 

  Ernstings: Aviation and Space Medicine

  Ernsting’s Aviation and Space Medicine (5 Ed) – February 5, 2015 by David J Rainford, David Gradwell
  ISBN-13: 978-1444179941 ISBN-10: 1444179942

 

 

 

 

 

 

HISTORICAL TEXTS

 

• Historia natural y moral de las indias by J. de Acosta.  Sevilla, Juan de Léon, 1590.
• A Narrative of the Two Aerial Voyages of Doctor John Jeffries with Mons. Blanchard, 1784-85.
• Sixteen introductory lectures, to courses of lectures upon the institutes and practice of medicine by Benjamin Rush, 1746-1813.
• Barometric pressure: Researches in Experimental Physiology by Paul Bert, 1943 [First published in French in 1878]. 
• Air Service Medical by the United States War Dept. Division of Military Aeronautics, 1919.
• The Role of U.S. Flight Surgeons during the Vietnam Conflict by Thomas I. Clements, 1987.

 

 

LANDMARK PAPERS & ARTICLES

 

Dawson D, Reid K. Fatigue, Alcohol and Performance Impairment. Nature. 1997 Jul 17;388(6639):235.

• This landmark Australian study was published in the journal, Nature, in 1997. In the study, researchers equated various levels of sleep deprivation with blood alcohol content levels in terms of performance degradation. Obviously, no responsible adult would operate a motor vehicle while intoxicated from alcohol, let alone pilot an aircraft, but what about doing either when fatigued?

Click here to download the full paper.

 

Clements, Thomas I.  The Role of USAF Flight Surgeons During The Vietnam Conflict.  Mar 1987.  

• An interesting historical context of the USAF flight surgeon with a greater in depth look of the role of the flight doc during the Vietnam Conflict.  The references alone in this research paper written by a former RAM student are worth the read.

Click here to download the full paper.

 

MORE TO COME…