Navy Medicine in Humanitarian Operations Force Projection or Diplomatic Debacle Waiting to Happen?

Abstract

Navy Medicine has conducted multiple humanitarian assistance (HA) missions such as the Tsunami Relief in 2004, advising of Afghani and Iraqi authorities in the development of their health care systems, and utilizing naval hospital ships to provide health care in developing nations. Some of the most positive results of the hospital ships were seen in the summer of 2006 on the MERCY. Relations were fostered with foreign military medical personnel from Canada, Australia, Singapore, India and Malaysia and 11 Non-governmental organizations who embarked aboard the ship. This crew's accomplishments include 60,081 patients seen, 131,511 total services provided; 1,083 surgeries; 19,375 Immunizations; 9,373 Dental Extractions. In an August 2006 public opinion survey, conducted by Terror Free Tomorrow, 85% Indonesia aware of MERCY's visit had a favorable opinion, and in Bangladesh this figure was 95%.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 19, 2008
Accession Number
ADA508948

Entities

People

  • Prasad B. Diwadkar

Organizations

  • Marine Corps Combat Development Command

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Governments
  • Health
  • Health Care
  • Health Services
  • Hospitals
  • Humanitarian Assistance
  • International Organizations
  • Local Governments
  • Marine Corps
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military Medicine
  • Situational Awareness
  • Students
  • Task Forces
  • Training
  • United States
  • War Colleges

Fields of Study

  • Medicine
  • Political science

Readers

  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Medical or Health Care Field.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.