Aviation medicine, also called
flight medicine or
aerospace medicine, is a
preventive or
occupational medicine in which the patients/subjects are pilots, aircrews, or persons involved in spaceflight. The specialty strives to treat or prevent conditions to which aircrews are particularly susceptible, applies medical knowledge to the
human factors in
aviation and is thus a critical component of
aviation safety. A military practitioner of aviation medicine may be called a
flight surgeon and a civilian practitioner is an
aviation medical examiner. One of the biggest differences between the military and civilian flight docs is the military flight surgeon's requirement to log flight hours.