Renown trauma expert highlights improvements in battlefield medicine at MHSRS

08/19/2016

Renown trauma expert highlights improvements in battlefield medicine at MHSRS

Combat casualty care has evolved significantly over the past decade.

Pre-hospital care has gone from how to process the movement of casualties through the different echelons of care to the present practice of direct transfer from point of injury to hospitals. All areas of military medical care have improved, and the evacuation chain of survival for the combat casualty has become very efficient.

Brian Eastridge, trauma medical director at the University of Texas at San Antonio Medical Center and a retired Army colonel, discussed these advances in battlefield medicine at the Military Health System Research Symposium in Orlando, Florida.

Caravalho to MHSRS: We need to be more innovative

Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Caravalho, Jr., Joint Staff Surgeon (center), chats with attendees of the Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) just before giving the opening remarks for the final day of the conference, Aug. 18, in Orlando, Florida. Caravalho emphasized in his speech how the military, and especially its medical community, must come up with new approaches and capabilities, much like what has been discussed during the four-day meeting. He said military health care providers must take a multi-regional, multi-functional approach.

Get your head out of the game to prevent TBI

As fall sports season begins for students and families, players can reduce the risk of a concussion by learning to tackle properly in sports such as football, lacrosse and rugby. Coaches may tell players to get their heads in the game, but players shouldn't take that literally, warned an expert with the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC).