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| News > Air Force surgeon general lays out future of aeromedical evacuation |
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Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Charles Green, the Air Force surgeon general, address hundreds of medical professionals at the first U.S.-led international in-flight medical care conference July 21, 2011, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Green was the keynote speaker at day two of the International Aeromedical Evacuation/En Route Care Conference. The event brings together doctors, nurses and paramedics from around the globe to share stories, advice and lessons learned. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. J.G. Buzanowski)
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Air Force surgeon general lays out future of aeromedical evacuation
Posted 7/27/2011 Updated 7/27/2011
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by Staff Sgt. J.G. Buzanowski
Air Mobility Rodeo 2011 Public Affairs
7/27/2011 - JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- The Air Force surgeon general addressed hundreds of medical professionals from around the world at the International Aeromedical Evacuation/En Route Care Conference at Joint Base Lewis-McChord recently.
Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Charles Green was the keynote speaker on the second day of the first U.S.-led international in-flight medical care conference and discussed the future of aeromedical evacuation.
Chief Master Sgt. Charles Cole, the enlisted advisor to the surgeon general, joined Green for their presentation, "Advancing the Art and Science of Aeromedical Evacuation."
Together the two explained how investing in training and education, leveraging new technologies and partnering with other nations will mean saving more people's lives.
"The world of medicine and medical practice is changing," Green said. "It requires us to adapt as well. We have to capitalize on the strength of interoperability by sharing lessons learned and skill sets with each other. No matter where you come from, we all have a vested interest in finding effective ways to help people."
The two-day conference gave participants the chance to share with each other their various experiences as they take the AE mission into the future.
According to Cole, the new tri-service training facility in San Antonio will give a baseline of skills to all medics in the military. Additionally, the new School of Aerospace Medicine at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, will provide medics, flight nurses and critical care teams the knowledge, skills and abilities they need to successfully care for servicemembers during aeromedical evacuation in a new state-of-the-art training facility.
As medical professionals look to the future of the AE mission, they also must ensure the care provided is seamless, not only from the ground to the air, but also between different services and different nations. Green stressed the importance of standardizing the equipment and supplies medical response teams use because of the increasing number of missions that find teams from different countries working together.
For example, on a recent mission out of Afghanistan, an American team and a British team were both flying on a C-17 Globemaster III, each team working with their own gear to save injured Soldiers. In the future, these collaborations could become more difficult if medical teams don't have compatible tools.
"If you show up with a piece of equipment without the right plugs or wires, it's effectively useless," Green said.
In fact, one improvement Green hopes to see is more wireless equipment that can be used aboard aircraft, as "once you get three or four machines hooked up to a patient, it just becomes a mess and a lot more difficult to work."
"Innovative pieces of technology have let us do more to help people," he said. (Many) surgeries now mean the patient walks out hours later instead of days. But there will always be ways we can get even better. Wireless equipment would be one great improvement."
Additionally, medics are unable to get accurate blood pressure readings while in flight, but there are new technologies out there that might provide the needed information.
He also said experts are looking at ways of using lasers to make bloodless incisions during surgery.
"The future for us is all about helping more people, saving more lives," Green said. "That means finding ways to move more patients, not just in volume, but patients we otherwise wouldn't move because they're not stable enough to fly."
Ultimately, Green stressed how important the AE mission is to today's fight and how past innovations have led to successes.
Over the last ten years, AE professionals have moved more than 90 thousand patients by air, 10 thousand of those were critical care patients. And of those 90 thousand, only four patients have died while in the care of aeromedical specialists, Green said.
"In the future, we'll be able to do even better," the general said.
The conference attendees heard from panel experts from around the Air Force, as well as Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Jordan and New Zealand, sharing their stories, advice and lessons learned. Retired Airmen and many civilians also spoke to the group. Representatives from 28 nations attended various events. |
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