The tech-saavy folks at RuggedPCReview.com have put together an excellent case study about the team of Duke University researchers who recently finished their Mount Everest expedition. The purpose of the expedition was to measure what affect the amount of oxygen in the blood has on the severity of altitude sickness. The team of researchers used two MobileDemand xTablet T7200 rugged tablet PC systems to perform sickness surveys to all of the climbers and also served as a data backup for the wrist-worn blood oxygen meters.
Below is a excerpt from the Rugged PC Review case study. Head on over to their website to read the case study in its entirety.
"In March 2013, a team of researchers from Duke University traveled to Nepal, spent 17 days at high altitude in the Khumbu, trekked 40 miles, and climbed 8,300 feet to the Everest South Base Camp at an altitude of 17,650 feet.
The expedition was part of a series of experiments to learn how humans successfully adapt to altitude and low oxygen environments. The study included tests in simulated altitude chambers at the Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology as well as the actual trek to the Everest Base Camp. Study goals also included examining changes in metabolism and DNA as the human body acclimatizes to low oxygen.
The work was done in conjunction with the Xtreme Everest 2 team from University College, London, UK, which had embarked on a large-scale field study of body adaption to low levels of oxygen. Far from being of merely academic interest, findings are expected to provide critical insights into how intensive care patients might be helped and treated in the future. It could save hundreds of thousands of lives of people with a range of diseases including cancer, diabetes, heart and lung disease, cystic fibrosis and congenital heart disease."
Continue reading 'Computers in High Altitude Expeditions'.