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Global Health Engagement, Building Partner Capacity and Interoperability, Partners
The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs is contributing to the Department of Defense’s goal of building lasting international partnerships by hosting military medical officers from several partner nations at the Defense Health Headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia. The foreign liaison officers are focused on gaining insight into how the U.S. military approaches force health protection and readiness, while working to coordinate the exchange of information on health activities between the United States and their home nations to enhance interoperability.
The number of foreign military medical liaison officers in Falls Church recently grew to five with the arrival of Col. Kai Schlolaut of the medical service of the Federal Defense Forces of Germany, or Bundeswehr.
“The reception here has been wonderful,” says Schlolaut. “I can’t stress enough how welcome I feel. I have had the opportunity to learn so much in my short time here thus far, and I’m looking forward to all that I can do to increase collaboration and knowledge-sharing between our military medical systems.”
Before his current position, Schlolaut has held a variety of positions with the Federal Defense Forces of Germany, including head of the Joint Medical Service’s personnel branch and spokesman for the Armed Forces and Medical Service for the German Minister of Defense. He is the first representative from Germany to serve as a military medical liaison to the Department of Defense.
“We’re very excited to have Col. Schlolaut here with us,” says Dr. Chris Daniel, Senior Adviser for Global Health Engagement within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health Affairs. “He brings a unique perspective and is a great asset for us as the Military Health System works to enhance interoperability with partner nations and build a global health services network in order to support the globally integrated operations of our Joint Force.”
Schlolaut joins four other liaison officers serving in similar roles in the building. Health Affairs hosts an officer from Canada and another from the United Kingdom, while officers from France and Japan are hosted by the Army Office of the Surgeon General.
Commander Ian Torrie of the Canadian Armed Forces serves as Defense Health Attaché for the Canadian Defense Liaison Staff at the Embassy of Canada in Washington, D.C. The position has helped to establish and strengthen connections between military medical professionals in Canada and the United States.
“These kinds of relationships are essential for ensuring that the value of military medicine is shared broadly between international partners,” he says. “The U.S. military has faced a remarkable scope of challenges both at home and around the world and has obviously built a very robust capability for military medical care. Being here allows me hopefully to translate some of the successes the U.S. has had and the lessons learned to the Canadian Armed Forces.”
But, he notes, he places a strong emphasis on ensuring that the relationship is a truly bilateral one, “Our armed forces may be smaller, but in a way that can sometimes allow us to more quickly adopt pilot programs and experiment with new approaches to military medicine, and we’re glad to share the knowledge we gain from that with our partners here in the United States.”
Surgeon Capt. Stephen Bree of the Royal Navy, who serves as a medical liaison officer for the United Kingdom, echoed those sentiments.
“We’ve built enduring partnerships and seen the importance of collaboration between our military medical systems during coalition operations in Afghanistan and Iraq,” said Bree. “It’s important that the lessons we’ve learned from those experiences not be lost. We have to build upon and maintain them, as well as continuing to learn from each other. My position here as a liaison officer allows me to contribute greatly toward that goal.”
Bree has traveled to dozens of military medical installations around the United States, including visits to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and aboard the USNS Comfort, engaging in exchanges of knowledge and experience with U.S. military medical professionals. If he’s fortunate enough, Bree said, he’ll be able to visit every major military medical facility during his tenure.
In addition to the personal experiences and knowledge that the foreign liaison officers gain, their presence at the Defense Health Headquarters allows them to identify opportunities for colleagues in their home countries to participate in Department of Defense exercises, education and training courses in the U.S., and other potential opportunities for collaboration. Such interactions serve to build trust and confidence, while the increased mutual awareness of medical capabilities and operations promotes interoperability. Given the Department’s goal of identifying, synchronizing and integrating appropriate capabilities of international partners into health service support for its troops, it is not surprising that foreign liaison officers have become an important element of the Department’s continued interest in global health engagement.
“We’re proud to support global partnerships in military medicine,” says Daniel. “Sharing our expertise and engaging on critical global health issues helps make the whole world safer even as it enables us to better support the Joint Force.”