Dr. Farhan M. Asrar's research is truly out-of-this-world. Along with his interest in family medicine and public health, he also researches space health and medicine. He's worked with several national and international organizations such as PHAC, NASA, Canadian Space Agency, European Space Agency, UN, and the International Space University. We caught up with him to learn more about how AI could play a role in the future of space medicine.
What inspired your interest in space health and medicine?
Everyone loves space and anything related to it. What I admire about space health and medicine is that along with family medicine and public health, all three fields can make a significant difference in virtually every area of health such as health promotion and prevention, environmental health, disaster management, pandemics, and remote-location care.
Space also brings the world together. It's inspiring to see nations working side-by-side toward a common goal of improving lives on Earth and pursuing humanity's ambitions of exploring our universe.
How did you become interested in using AI as part of your research?
My interest in AI stems from my space health and medicine-related experience. Astronauts have largely relied on Earth-based support and care. However, for long-duration space flights, deep-space missions, and the possibility of living on the Moon and eventually Mars, it is important to have autonomous healthcare. This is where AI and Machine Learning can play a crucial role while also improving medical care in remote and extreme conditions on Earth.
How is the new interest in "space tourism" affecting space health and medicine?
Space health and medicine will be playing a significant role in space tourism, the private space sector, and vice versa. We have more individuals travelling into space, even those with underlying health issues. The medical criteria for selection for space travel is adapting to these changes. This also has the potential to increase career opportunities for space medicine in Canada.
What projects are you working on right now that you’re really excited about?
One recent project involved overseeing an international team of over 100 professionals, experts, astronauts, and learners to explore what role space can play in the monitoring, mitigation, and prevention and preparedness of pandemics. My team and I were invited to share our findings at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) Scientific and Technical Subcommittee.
Additionally, I formed a more specialized team that looked into this further, with experts from the Canadian Space Agency, NASA, and astronauts such as Dr. David Saint-Jacques and Dr. Dave Williams. We published our findings in Nature Medicine and our research featured in around 100 international media outlets including CBC, USA Today, and the Toronto Star.
What’s the number one piece of advice you’d give to students following in your footsteps?
If I had to pick one piece of advice, I'd advise them to see how they can be beneficial to others.
Nowadays we often get caught up in our personal lives. But if you take a step back and look around, you'll find a lot of inspiration there. A number of my achievements—such as founding an ongoing UofT-based volunteer student group to help orphaned children (currently going into its 20th year!), launching a national public health physician magazine, starting a provincial environmental health newsletter, creating a language database at my previous family health team to help support patients with language barriers—were not made for personal gain, fame, or with the aim of making a successful or popular program. They all started with a focus on how I could help someone else and grew from there. And with it came success.
