Their drape- and dock-free design and portability allow for fast setup in any operating room and eliminate the need for a mainframe room, and allow for fast cleaning and movement in between cases. They can be used as either stand-alone solutions or complementary tools at facilities that already have a mainframe.

“Exploring the use of miniRAS in extreme environments helps our teams understand how we can remove barriers for patients,” said Shane Farritor, co-founder and chief technology officer at Virtual Incision and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Nebraska.

The concept of remote monitoring has been tested previously in space with other types of medical devices. In 2020, an astronaut found he had a deep-vein thrombosis blood clot when he scanned himself with an ultrasound. Using the transmitted scans, a North Carolina doctor prescribed him a dose from a limited amount of a blood thinner on board the spacecraft until more drugs arrived. An earth-based radiology team guided him to perform additional exams to monitor his condition.

In 2021, Israeli researchers launched handheld ultrasound devices with AI software that provided real-time guidance to astronauts on board with no sonography training in performing exams on one another.

Formed in 2006, Virtual Incision has raised more than $100 million in venture capital investment as a company. NASA funded the device's development and mission with a $100,000 grant through the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) and began work on it in 2022.

The MIRA system and spaceMIRA solution are investigational and not available for sale.

The experiment will take place sometime over the next month and findings will be made available soon.

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