The literature of aerospace medicine came to mind when I recently read Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, originally published in French as Terre des Hommes (Land of Men). It is a series of reminiscences about Saint-Exupéry’s aviation career. Most of the book is devoted to his plane crash in 1935 in the Sahara Desert on the north coast of Africa, which he and his copilot barely survived. He describes the early days of aviation with its pleasures and terrors, including companionship with other pilots, spatial disorientation, and the very real risk of an aircraft accident and how to survive in that situation—all aerospace medical topics. The history of aviation, space exploration, and aerospace medicine are intertwined, and to develop a deep knowledge of our specialty, reading across all these areas is essential. One of the remarkable characteristics of our field is its diversity. Not only do we have American and many international physicians among our AsMA members, but also nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, aviation and space physiologists, psychologists, toxicologists, researchers, and other professionals in other areas. That being the case, the following recommendations are not meant to be all-inclusive.

In training, aerospace medical physician specialists should read one (or both) of the two foremost textbooks in our field, Fundamentals of Aerospace Medicine (5^th edition) by Jeffrey Davis, Jan Stepanek, Jennifer Fogarty, and Rebecca Blue, and Ernsting’s Aviation and Space Medicine (6^th edition), edited by David Gradwell and Elizabeth Wilkinson. Both Davis and Gradwell are Past Presidents of AsMA. A UK textbook largely in bullet point format, which may be useful as a study guide, is also available: Handbook of Aviation and Space Medicine, edited by Nicholas Green, Steven Gaydos, Ewan Hutchison, and Ed Nicol. The Handbook of Aerospace and Operational Physiology (2^nd edition, available online) by Ryan Maresh, Andrew Woodrow, and James Webb is the main text resource used by U.S. Air Force aerospace physiologists. Physiology in space is addressed by Space Physiology and Medicine: From Evidence to Practice (4^th edition) by Arnauld Nicogossian, Richard Williams, Carolyn L. Huntoon, Charles Doarn, James D. Polk, and Victor Schneider. Another useful space medicine resource is Principles of Clinical Medicine for Space Flight by NASA’s Michael Barratt, Ellen Baker, and Sam Pool. The Air Medical Crew National Standards Curriculum provides insight into the fundamentals of flight nursing science. Rayman’s Clinical Aviation Medicine (3^rd edition) by Dr. Russell Rayman and the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners (available only online) are other important references when learning the specialty. Another useful FAA clinical resource is the Federal Air Surgeon’s Medical Bulletin, published quarterly. The FAA published a comprehensive paper on Aeromedical Research Contributions to Civil Aviation Safety by William Collins and Katherine Wade in 2005.

In the periodical literature, the journal Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance (a.k.a. AMHP or “the Blue Journal”) is pre-eminent, though aerospace medical papers sporadically appear in many other medical and some non-medical journals, so if you are looking for papers on a specific aerospace medical topic, it is best to use a search engine such as Ovid, PubMed, or Google Scholar. Here is where libraries can also help. In addition to academic libraries associated with medical schools, consider searching those that specialize in aerospace medicine such as: the FAA’s Civil Aerospace Medicine library online; FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine Technical Reports; The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC^®); the Franzello Aeromedical Library, which is affiliated with the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM) in Dayton, OH; and the Charles A. Berry, M.D., History of Space Medicine Collections at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. The FAA publishes a periodically updated compendium on U.S. and international aerospace medicine literature in its Index of International Publications in Aerospace Medicine, most recently published by Melchor Antuñano and Katherine Wade in 2014.

The “Blue Journal” has had several names over the years, starting as the Journal of Aviation Medicine in 1930, adding “space” in the title as the Journal of Aerospace Medicine in 1959 with the advent of NASA and the modern space age, and adding “environmental medicine” in 1980. In 2015 it became Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance under the editorship of Dr. Fred Bonato. Dr. David Newman is our current Editor-in-Chief, working closely with his assistant Sandy Kawano, Managing Editor Rachel Trigg, and her assistant Stella Sanchez.

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Our Journal is currently available in both electronic and print form. The electronic version has been hosted on two different hosting websites for many years, which has made it difficult for some to find issues of our journal and to research an aerospace medicine topic thoroughly. That will soon change. Since January 2023 the journal’s publisher, Sheridan^®, has been working with Jeff Sventek and Journal staff to consolidate all journal issues (1930–present) on their journal hosting website, PubFactory. AsMA’s Executive Committee has approved the migration process, which is now nearly complete. Following tests of the new site by Journal staff, the new AsMA PubFactory website should be operational and available for accessing the electronic journal by 1 September 2024. You will continue to access the journal by logging into the Members Section of the AsMA website (www.asma.org) and then selecting the menu option titled “ASMA JOURNAL ONLINE.” We believe you will find the new PubFactory website to be a great improvement.

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