From the ER to Zero Gravity: How Space Medicine Teaches Clinicians to Build in Startups with Dr. Marsh Cuttino
Episode Description
From ER to Space Medicine: How Clinicians Create Systems Where None Exist
Dr. Marsh Cuttino is an emergency physician who turned curiosity into systems impact. Trained at Kennedy Space Center, he raised his hand early and became one of the few clinicians to support shuttle launches and conduct zero‑gravity medical research.
He founded Orbital Medicine to solve problems no one had addressed, including how to treat a collapsed lung in microgravity. His work secured NASA grants and was successfully tested aboard Blue Origin.
Beyond aerospace, he helped build the VCU Emergency Medicine Residency from scratch, proving clinicians can create systems where none exist.
This conversation explores the translation of lessons of clinicians from extreme environments to startup life. Navigating innovation, building from scratch, and raising your hand before you even feel ready.
This episode is for clinicians stepping into early-stage companies who want to understand how to balance strict protocols with startup creativity, how to create opportunity by showing up early, and how to reframe clinical expertise for innovation in healthcare and beyond.
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
- Training at NASA and supporting 34 shuttle launches showed how clinicians can step into industries without precedent.
- Founding Orbital Medicine proved that clinicians can design solutions for problems no one has solved, including collapsed lungs in microgravity.
- Emergency medicine built resilience under pressure, a skill that translates directly into startup leadership.
- Navigating strict NASA protocols revealed why systems discipline matters, even when building new ventures from scratch.
- Flight hours in zero gravity highlighted the importance of adaptability and collaboration when others could not continue.
- Building the ER residency at VCU mirrored startup life, showing how clinicians create systems where none exist.
- Learning “engineer speak” demonstrated how clinicians must cross disciplines to lead innovation.
- Raising your hand early created opportunities that shaped his career, reinforcing the value of stepping in before you feel ready.
About Dr. Marsh Cuttino
Dr. Marsh Cuttino is a Board-Certified Emergency Physician who is experienced in aerospace medicine, disaster, and mass casualty medicine. He has an undergraduate BS degree in Chemistry from James Madison University, attended medical school and an internship in Internal Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University and completed his Residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of Florida (Jacksonville) in 1998. He was a founding faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University for the start of the Emergency Medicine Residency. He provided bedside clinical training for US Special Operations Medics while at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has lectured extensively on mass casualty medicine and terrorism response for emergency departments. He continues to be a regular reviewer for the Elsevier journal Resuscitation on Emergency Medicine and resuscitation research and Wilderness and Environmental Medicine on parabolic microgravity.
He is the medical advisor to the Commercial Spaceflight Federation on the SARG (Space Applications Research Group) advisory board. He has assisted with the programs for the Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference since 2013. In 2020 he began to work for ZeroG corporation as medical advisor and flight coach, providing flight services for the parabolic microgravity flights with a focus on research flights and medical support.
He also founded Orbital Medicine, a space medicine startup that secured grants with NASA, and successfully tested a novel device to treat collapsed lungs in microgravity aboard Blue Origin.
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