Automating the flight surgeon's report, simplifying the investigative-reportage task, and enhancing the data quality and depth: a concept.

Current U.S. Navy medical officers' investigative reports concerning aviation mishaps are filed on paper form Flight Surgeon's Reports (FSRs). Typically, the investigating medical officer has not investigated many mishaps and needs guidance to assure the thorough collection and reportage of available information, including that which often might seem at first to be extremely insignificant. Additionally, the FSRs often contain errors capable of being detected and corrected, as well as entries that appear questionnable and require verification. Often the FSR is laced with blanks which cloud interpretation: are these blanks the result of an actual non-availability of information, losses of information, or simply errors of omission? A positive statement for each blank, even a statement that the data were not available, would greatly aid those who later use the reports for analyses. Proposed herein is an approach for reducing the investigating medical officer's problems in collecting, collating, and reporting information, thereby enhancing the quality and completeness of the data, reducing the cost of data entry into Naval Safety Center computers, and, ultimately, enhancing the knowledge of the aircrew automated escape system and aircrew life support system community concerning the conditions of use and the performance of their equipment in emergency situations. Such knowledge enhancement should result in significant improvements in aircrew equipment and the effectiveness and safety of the aircrews.