U.S.S. Voyager : Sickbay - PAGE 1

Voyager's sickbay is located on deck 5, in the primary hull (the 'saucer'), in Section 15 Alpha. Page 6 contains a layout diagram of part of that section including sickbay, as displayed on a corridor's wall monitor in [#88 Vis à Vis]. Sickbay contains the equipment and technology necessary to keep the ship's crew healthy. It contains a primary bio-bed located in the surgical bay and three standard bio-beds. All are equipped with medical sensors and other diagnostic devices. A forcefield containing a sterile atmosphere can be erected anywhere within sickbay e.g. around the surgical bay. Sickbay also contains the Doctor's office and its position also gives him (or his assistant) the benefit of being able to observe patients from there. There is also an adjacent medical lab, which includes computer consoles and seating, where the Doctor (or his assistant) can work on, say, analysing medical samples.

Sickbay is a holographic environment equipped with several holo-emitters. This is because Voyager, like contemporary Starfleet vessels, is equipped with an Emergency Medical Hologram. This is a program intended for short-term use, to supplement the Doctor, but in 2371 Voyager's human doctor was killed when the ship was carried by the Caretaker's displacement wave into the Delta Quadrant, and the EMH has taken his place. He has been online almost all the time since then. The Emergency Medical Holographic program was created by a team at Jupiter Station's Holoprogramming Center led by the brilliant Dr Lewis Zimmerman. In Voyager's case the program is the original Mark 1. The EMH program's full name is "EMH program AK-one, diagnostic and surgical subroutine omega three-two-three". The EMH is programmed with information from 2,000 medical references and the experience of 47 physicians plus over five million surgical treatments and techniques, with contingency options and adaptive programs. The program contains over 50 million gigaquads of data and is equipped with the medical knowledge of over 3,000 cultures. The EMH is automatically activated during a red alert. The EMH has the ability to walk through forcefields, meaning that they cannot impede him at his work - there are screenshots including an animated one on page 3. (Example sources: [#3 Parallax], [#8 Ex Post Facto], [#118 Relativity], [#17 Projections].) Early in 2371 the Doctor was given, by order of the captain, the ability to control his own deactivation. The EMH program incorporates an adaptive heuristic matrix which allows the EMH to learn and adapt from its experiences. That was originally conceived as a means to improve upon its medical knowledge and skills but Voyager's Doctor, aided by the crew, has developed into what they all consider to be a sentient being. Janeway says: "The Doctor is a person, as real as any flesh and blood I've ever known." [#166 Author, Author]

There is more information on the Doctor, including animations and soundfiles of his program's activation/deactivation, at CREW: Doctor.

[Learning Curve] [The Swarm] There is a drawing of the primary biobed on page 4. See it now.

The primary biobed, located in the surgical bay, is the most important piece of diagnostic and surgical equipment in Sickbay. It is usually the first place where a patient is examined and diagnosed, especially for obviously critically ill or injured persons. It is a free-standing unit which can rotate through 360°, and also incline if needed, to allow medical staff to access the patient if necessary from any angle. It contains more monitors, console and other medical equipment than the standard biobeds. As with the standard biobeds, surgical support frames are built into "clamshell"-like arms that extend from both sides of the primary biobed. The arms, which contain additional high-resolution medical scanners, form a bridge over the patient, and provide detailed diagnostic information as well as recovery devices and, in surgery, they combine with the overhead unit to generate a sterile environment. Above the primary biobed are bright lights to enable medical staff to see clearly, an array of biological sensors and a forcefield generator. The forcefield generator is used not only to contain the sterile atmosphere necessary for surgery or quarantine, but it can also be used to confine a dangerous or violent patient. In the latter circumstance, a security team is also likely to be assigned to sickbay. All biobeds serve as examination tables, and are accordingly equipped with monitors and scanners. Physiosensors constantly monitor and report the patient's condition (the term "physiosensor" is used in [#88 Vis à Vis]). On average a biobed is 1 metre wide and 2 metres long, which is sufficient for most humanoid lifeforms (but too small for Species 8472). The bed is raised to a comfortable working height for medical examination or treatment, and it can also incline, if necessary, to benefit the patient e.g. during pre-natal examinations and childbirth. Biobeds are equipped with biosensor displays which are mounted at the head of each unit.