Letter in Response to Top 10 Research Priorities for U.S. Military En Route Combat Casualty Care

Abstract

We thank the research subcommittee and Committee on En Route Combat Critical Care (CoERCCC) members who developed the top 10 research priorities for ERCCC published in the March/April 2021 issue of Military Medicine based on discussions between 2016-2020. Since that time, strategic shifts and changes in combat operations have resulted in renewed focus on Arctic environments, Multi-Domain Operations (MDO), and preparation for large scale combat operations (LSCO) in denied environments have implications to the research priorities for en route care (ERC). Specifically, future mission projections with lack of air superiority and inability to perform on demand aeromedical evacuations will challenge scalability in resource constrained environments with prolonged evacuation times in novel environmental conditions. Operational medicine leaders have called for the en route care (ERC) community to proactively identify and address ERC system needs in a denied environment with large casualty volumes to decrease lives lost in early stages of future conflicts. Upon review of the top 10 priorities published in Military Medicine, these core priorities remain relevant in this changing environment. In the authors' opinion, both research for knowledge and research for materiel should be considered through the perspective of future operating environment needs to add research of the 10 priorities identified by the CoERCCC. The intent of this communication is to provide a few examples of translating the ERC research priorities specifically to address challenges anticipated with: (1) prolonged evacuation times, (2) operations in extreme cold environments, (3) ERC scalability for large volumes of wounded, ill, and injured (WII) and (4) interoperability between personnel and equipment across joint ERC.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 28, 2022
Accession Number
AD1165134

Entities

People

  • Cubby L Gardner
  • Patrick C. Ng
  • Richard Stefanski
  • Shelia C. Savell
  • William T Davis

Organizations

  • 59th Medical Wing

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aeromedical Evacuation
  • Air Power
  • Casualties
  • Combat Casualty Care
  • Combat Operations
  • Environment
  • Evacuation
  • First Responders
  • Load Monitoring
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military Medicine
  • Monitoring
  • Multi-Domain Operations
  • Patient Care
  • Physiological Monitoring
  • Scalability
  • Transport Ships
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Defense Technology Research and Development.
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Trauma or Military Medicine