HEALTHTechnology, compact tools put physicians in dust of battleChanges in front-line medicine improve the urgent care given soldiers hurt in the Iraqi conflict.By Victoria Stagg Elliott, amednews staff. April 14, 2003. Modern war moves fast, but military medicine is determined to keep up. Physicians and medical personnel are now relying on new tools and technology, even updated models of care, to improve battlefield treatment. Innovations have changed emergency medical approaches in this conflict, from first response at the moment a soldier is injured, through continued care at a field hospital and during transport to a European or North American medical center, as soon as 16 hours later. "The MASH kind of idea seen on television was really the beginning, and now we've advanced far beyond that," said Col. Jonathan Woodson, MD, a reservist who served in the first Gulf War and is based in Kuwait as the deputy commander of clinical services for the Army. "The improvements have been along several lines. The first has to do with training of personnel. The second has to do with the organization of care. The third has to do with the equipment, procedures, medications and operations that can be performed." Soldiers are trained in basic first aid, and military medics are certified emergency medical technicians. In previous conflicts, medics had only combat first aid training. All medical personnel have received expanded training to include information about chemical and biological weapons and have access to protective gear and antitoxins. They also have new high-tech tools and medications that can stop bleeding faster than ever before. On the macro level, the military has changed the system by which care is delivered. Front-line surgical teams, initially used on a small scale by the Army during the first Gulf War, are now an important part of every branch of the U.S. military. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2003 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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