In partnership with Google, NASA is developing an innovative medical assistant powered by artificial intelligence, known as the Crew Medical Officer Digital Assistant (CMO-DA). This system is designed for autonomous diagnosis and treatment of symptoms during space missions when communication with Earth may be limited or a doctor is unavailable.

This information has been reported by PCMag.

The CMO-DA operates within the Vertex AI environment of Google Cloud and supports multimodal interaction, including voice, text, and images. NASA owns the source code of the assistant and is actively involved in customizing it. The platform provides access to models from both Google and third-party developers.

The system has already been tested in three scenarios: ear pain, side pain, and ankle injury. All cases were evaluated by physicians, including an astronaut. The diagnostic accuracy ranged from 74% to 88% depending on the scenario.

This project is being executed under a fixed contract with Google Public Sector, covering cloud services, development infrastructure, and model training. In the future, NASA plans to integrate additional data sources, including medical devices, and adapt the model for microgravity conditions.

CMO-DA is part of NASA's strategy to gradually transition to autonomous medicine in space. If successfully validated in orbit, this technology could be adapted for use on Earth, particularly in remote regions or areas with limited access to medical services.

Recently, NASA also shared how it has supported the Curiosity rover for 13 years.