Surgeon commends benefits of tech advances, joint efforts, AFSO 21

  • Published
  • By Kim Dawley
  • Air Force Materiel Command Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFNS) --  Technological advances, joint efforts and a focus on Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century have led to great strides in military combat and peacetime healthcare, said Brig. Gen. (Dr.) Richard A. "Rick" Hersack, the command surgeon of the Air Force Materiel Command.

In the technological arena, one development has been the miniaturization of equipment. Compared to older equipment, modern equipment is smaller, lighter and much easier to carry.

"The miniaturization of basic medical equipment needed for critical care in the air, or during any phase of patient movement, has been huge," Doctor Hersack said. "If a patient needs to be intubated and put on a ventilator, and the ventilator is the size of a bedside table, then it's going to be very difficult to move that patient over long distances (if) you can't take the ventilator on board."

Modularization has also helped with combat care, making equipment packages more efficient.

"We've taken all of our medical equipment packages and modularized them and tailored them based on specific functions," the doctor said. We deploy what we need to forward locations as opposed to trying to get all of it there at one time. It's phased in (to provide) what's needed first, followed by what's needed second."

As beneficial as the technological advances have been, joint efforts have also contributed to the progress of combat healthcare.

According to Doctor Hersack, a partnership between members of the Air Force, Army and Navy have established a joint enroute-care system that's a combination of the ground medical piece, which includes stabilization of the casualty, as well as the enroute piece, which includes patient movement.

"The success we're enjoying right now with casualty care in the theater has been because it's a joint effort," Doctor Hersack said. "It makes no sense to emphasize just strategic aeromedical evacuation if you're not addressing what the first responders do at the point of injury, the ground medical piece. You have to have a survivor to evacuate. The care the first responders, the combat medics and the Navy corpsmen, provide right at the point of injury has been absolutely pivotal, because you have to get to someone in the first several minutes after injury and provide life saving stabilization, on-the-scene care. You have to stop or delay the killing process to allow time to evacuate (the injured) back to a point where they can be under the care of a surgeon, or you won't have a survivor."

In fact, joint efforts, both within the military and with civilian agencies and non-governmental organizations, are becoming almost second-nature.

"Our medics of this generation are much more attuned to thinking joint, and coalition and interagency and considering how to integrate those right from the get-go. I'm seeing a cultural change that's very encouraging," Doctor Hersack said.

One thing that has not changed is a dedication to continuous improvement.

"We've certainly switched our casualty care and movement doctrine," the doctor said. "We used to think it was better to treat and stabilize them; to hold them at the forward location. Now we do essential care and look at it as more advantageous to try to get them back to definitive care more quickly. By far, most patients benefit from that."

Taking better care of patients has always been a concern of those in the healthcare profession. In the Air Force, this means that the thinking that defines Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century predates the AFSO 21 name.

"On the medical side, in a sense, we've been doing AFSO 21 for a very long time; we just didn't call it that," Doctor Hersack said. "In the early to mid-'90s we started looking at how to modularize and miniaturize our medical capability and work more jointly together. We continue to do that now."