Effective immediately, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston will manage medical operations for the United States Antarctic Program. UTMB will be working for the National Science Foundation as a subcontractor for Lockheed Martin's Antarctic Support Contract.
"This is a tremendous opportunity for UTMB," said Dr. David L. Callender, president of UTMB. "We are no strangers to the ice, having operated there for the last decade, providing critical medical support on occasion. This new agreement represents an expansion of the work we're already doing."
Dr. Scott Parazynski, former NASA astronaut, will be the Chief Medical Officer for the new Center for Polar Medical Operations at UTMB.
"Antarctica is the most remote and extreme place on earth to live and work," said Parazynski. "It's our responsibility and privilege to assure those who are traveling there are physically up to the challenge and have the medical support they need once they get there."
The multi-year contract is worth up to $2 billion for Lockheed Martin if all options are exercised. UTMB's contract runs through September 2016 with options to renew in two-year increments through March 2025. If all options are exercised the university could realize $60 million.
UTMB has been providing telemedicine services for the United States Antarctic Program for more than a decade for the previous contractor. Under the agreement with Lockheed Martin, UTMB Health will establish a Center for Polar Medical Operations in Galveston to manage health services at the three stations operated by the U.S. - McMurdo Station, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and Palmer Station - as well as numerous seasonal field camps and two marine research vessels operated year round.
Each of the polar stations has a physician and McMurdo has the equivalent of a level four urgent care center with capability for radiology and laboratory work, as well as an emergency medical technician or physician's assistant and a lab technician.
In addition to providing medical staff, equipment and supplies on the on the continent, UTMB will also manage the required medical screening of the roughly 3,000 people who work at U.S. stations in the Antarctic each year. Another 300 people who 'winter over' at the bottom of the world, when weather conditions and continuous darkness make travel impossible, also require psychological evaluations.