About 29th Session of Coordinative Advisory Aeromedical Council

On 16-20 November 2009, the Interstate Aviation Committee held the IAC Coordinative Advisory Aeromedical Council (CAAC IAC) Session on: "Issues of medical check over aviation specialists and ways to improve it."

50 heads of aviation medical services and specialists from 7 contracting states of the Agreement on Civil Aviation and Use of Airspace (Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russian Federation, Republic of Tajikistan, Republic of Uzbekistan), as well as representatives of aviation medical institutions of state aviation, SSC RF Institute of bio-medical problems of RAS, State Scientific Research Testing Institute of Military Medicine of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, medical department of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, medical service of Aeroflot-Russian Airlines, Vnukovo Airport, Volga-Dnepr Airlines, Tupolev JSC, All-Russian Center of Catastrophe Medicine “Protection” of Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation FSI, research and production enterprises of Russia and other involved enterprises took part in the Council work.

A report on CAAC IAC activity for the period 1993-2009 was presented, issues of pre-flight inspection of crews were discussed, medical equipment objectively assessing pilots’ state of health was demonstrated, issues of medical and flight expertise were considered, a draft of medical history of aviation personnel was reviewed, sanitary and epidemiological issues of highly pathogenic influenza A (H1N1) spread prevention, as well as issues of medical aid to passengers in flight and on land were considered as well.

    Significant interest and discussion were caused by the following reports:

    - Health factor is a condition for the success of CA flight attendants and the importance of preflight inspection (T.V. Filipyeva, Ph.D., aviation psychologist, Russia);

    - Advisability of preflight inspection on the example of Volga-Dnepr Airlines (D.B. Tkhostova, chief doctor of the Polyclinic for Rehabilitation of Volga-Dnepr Airlines, Ulyanovsk)

    - Dynamic medical supervision for aviation specialists using the hardware-software complex "Amsat" (VN Kovalenko, director of the medical and technical center "Covert", Moscow)

  - Experience in using automated pre-shift medical examination among persons of hazardous occupations and advisability of its approbation by aviation experts of civil aviation (T. Ryabova, MD, professor, head of the laboratory of the Scientific and Technical Center for Radiation and Chemical Safety and Hygiene of the Federal Medical Biological Agency of Russian Federation, Moscow;

    - Assessment of the current functional state and physical performance of the flight crew (VM Mikhailov, representative of Neurosoft Company, Ivanovo;

    - International experience and innovative technologies in aeronautical telemedicine (K.A. Khudyakov, Head of the Department for the development of aviation medicine in CIS - International SOS - MedAire, Moscow);

    - Expert tactics in the study of the flight crew resistance to vestibular irritants (Y.A Sokolov, Ph.D. 223 Center of Aviation Medicine, Minsk) and several other reports.
     During CAAC work the members of the aeromedical council, experts and heads of the aviation medical services took part in the anniversary conference of the Department of Aerospace Medicine of the Russian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education of Roszdrav on: "Actual issues of flight medical support" dedicated to the 100th anniversary of aviation medicine of Russia and the 70th anniversary of the department.

The following decisions were taken by CAAC:

    1. Approve CAAC IAC activity on medical flight safety support of the contracting states of the Agreement on Civil Aviation and Use of Airspace for the period 1993-2009;

    2. Elect Sergey Nikolaevich Ivashov, Head of the Department of Coordination and Development of Aeronautical Medicine of the IAC, as CAAC Chairman, co-chaired by Professor Valentin Dmitrievich Vlasov;

    3. Consider preflight (pre-shift) and intercommission medical check as an integral part of flight safety promotion, recognizing the need for its improvement using methods of automated examination;

    4. Recommend the introduction of new modern functional and diagnostic methods for the study of the cardiovascular system with determination of the metabolic equivalent and the mathematical analysis of heart rate variability of medical-flight expertise to the involved contracting states of the Agreement.

    5. Continue work on evaluation and necessity of introducing a multifunctional sample with Coriolis acceleration cumulation proposed by the candidate of medical sciences Y.A. Sokolov (Republic of Belarus), to flight-medical expertise of civil aviation;

    6. Approve the medical history draft of the contracting states of the Agreement and submit a revised document, taking into account the comments, to the next Aeromedical Council for making the final decision.

    7. Recognize that preparation of the document draft on formation of unified on-board kits for emergency medical assistance is urgent, taking into account the proposals of the air medical service of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the ICAO recommendations.

    8. Approve Pnevmopribor LLC activity on implementation of a portable lung ventilator, to recommend preparation of the necessary documentation in order to resolve the issue on the possibility of installing this device on aircraft of involved states.

    9. Recommend the introduction of changes and additions to the "Guide for Certification of the Conditions for the Implementation of Medical Activity in Aviation of Contracting States", taking into account current conditions of aeromedical activity;

    10. Approve CAAC IAC activity on the improvement of medical flight-expert commission system and recommend the formation of a Working Group on Coordination of the Issues of Medical Examination and Rehabilitation of Aviation Specialists from representatives of the contracting states the Agreement.
    
    11. The next CAAC meeting on "Aviation doctor and
his role in ensuring flight safety" is to be held in the Republic of
Tajikistan in May-June 2010.