On May 26, 2021, the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine (IAASM) convened a 3-hour aerospace medicine webinar on the Aerospace Medicine lessons learned from COVID-19.

The webinar served as an outreach and service to Academicians, as well as the worldwide aerospace medicine community, filling the void left by COVID-related cancellation of numerous aerospace medicine scientific meetings around the world.

The webinar featured an array of speakers from different aerospace medicine backgrounds, including clinical, research, management, air evacuation, and policy-setting, all speaking about leveraging lessons learned from the current pandemic experience, as we look ahead to the next global infectious disease crisis—sooner or later.

The six webinar panelists, who represented 5 different nations (Spain, USA, Norway, UK, New Zealand) spoke of their experiences during the COVID pandemic, applying their knowledge to future infectious disease transport challenges.

The panelists covered COVID’s effect on the future practice of clinical aviation medicine, the safe conduct of aeromedical transport, public health policy implications, as well as necessary domestic and international regulatory adjustments.

The webinar attracted 158 registrants and, in keeping with the Academy’s goal of global outreach, 39 different countries were represented. Based on this favorable response, the Academy plans to conduct further outreach activities for the aerospace medicine community in the future.