health.mil

Emily Greene  |  health.mil

July 10, 2012

Innovation has always been a hallmark of military medicine, producing advances in care and health benefits for the military community and the nation at large. 

Lt. Gen. (Ret) Dr. Paul K. Carlton Jr. is director of the office of homeland security for the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center and the 17th surgeon general of the United States Air Force.  He attributes military medicine’s innovative spirit to the “constant intelligent inquiry” that pervades the community.

“The culture of the Air Force has always been to seek new and better ways to do things; a necessity for survival in our fast changing world of air warfare,” Carlton says. 

He adds the Air Force Medical Service is not alone in its approach to innovation. While each service branch has a unique culture, Carlton says it is the blending of perspectives that results in a wide array of medical innovations.

“The Army and Navy are focused on the battlefield and the Air Force is focused on the transportation piece, as it should be,” Carlton explains.  “I like to put this as ‘blended together, mixed well and matured in the crucible of the conflict,’ each service focused on their pressing requirements and together [they] make it all work!”

Carlton says one of the best examples of lifesaving collaboration between the service medical communities is the improvement of abilities to provide care under fire, before wounded service members can be medically evacuated to a more stable location.  He highlights the ability to provide critical care in the air, actually treating casualties while they are being transported, as a critical part of the whole care continuum for casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 10 years.

Earlier this year, Dr. Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs commented on the plethora of recent advances emanating from military medicine.  “Over the last 10 years of war, we have displayed extraordinary versatility and innovation in battlefield medicine.  We have identified and fielded new technologies, processes, tools and training with real outcomes in lives saved and consequences of injuries reduced.”

Woodson said some of these innovations include improvements in first aid practices and training across the force, the capability to conduct surgeries in forward locations and in the air, quick transport abilities for casualties and improvements in body armor and equipment resulting in better protection for the warfighter.   And, he said, the combination of improved technologies and innovative uses of technologies, practices and training have made military medicine what it is today – the best health care in the world – under the most dire circumstances. 

“Innovation offers us the opportunity to improve quality, service and health while reducing costs,” Woodson said.  He added, “Military medicine has served as a model for innovation for as long as modern medicine has existed.  I want to sustain and expand that heritage.”

Read more about innovation in the military health system.

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