Snip from article on Yahoo - really great news...

Europe Tests Satellite System for Disaster Medicine
Tue Nov 12, 3:42 PM ET
By Stephen Pincock

LONDON (Reuters Health) - The European Space Agency is developing a new satellite system to allow emergency workers in a disaster zone to get expert help treating patients when mobile and land-based communications are struck down.

A trial run of the system in southern Germany late last week showed the DELTASS (Disaster Emergency Logistics Telemedicine Advanced Satellites System) works well, and negotiations are under way to get it into use, the agency said on Tuesday.

DELTASS uses geostationary and low earth orbit satellites. It allows central management of emergency workers scattered around a disaster zone and lets medical experts hundreds of miles away help with the diagnosis of casualties.

This communication system could be especially useful when existing communications networks are affected, said Francesco Feliciani, DELTASS project manager at the European Space Agency.

"A major accident does as much invisible as visible harm," he said in a statement. "Apart from the damage to terrestrial communications infrastructure done by the likes of an earthquake (news - web sites) or floods, the first thing that becomes unavailable is the cellular network, which quickly gets overloaded."