PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AS AN ARMY MEDICAL STRATEGY: A CASE STUDY
Posted byGreg Gharst November 18, 2022
EDITOR’S NOTE: The current temporary theme we are using only credits a single author. This article was written by Greg Gharst, Sascha Jung, Benjamin Torsrud and Artemio Tulio.
The current doctrinal format by which PM missions are conducted is inadequate for the ever changing and fluid composition of the modern-day asymmetric warfare battlefield.
Since World War II, the military has known that there is a necessity in having personnel keep track of disease and non-battle injury (DNBI) and provide recommendations to mitigate the associated risks. In fact, DNBI is attributed to have caused 80% of all battlefield casualties according to the May 2015 Field Hygiene and Sanitation Training Circular. Although recent operations have shown that these numbers have decreased, the importance of risk mitigation must not be lost.
Force Health Protection is the Army Medical Department’s mission in the protection of the warfighting function and all measures taken by commanders, supervisors, and individual service members to promote, protect, improve, conserve, and restore the mental and physical well-being of service members across the full range of military activities and operations. Preventive medicine (PM), a vital component of force health protection, seeks to continue quality of life improvement by looking at all variables that affect the health of a service member. It is defined as the anticipation, prediction, identification, prevention, and control of communicable diseases, illnesses (including vector, food, and waterborne diseases), injuries, and diseases due to exposure to Occupational and Environmental Health threats, including nonbattle injury threats. From communicable and vector-borne diseases; hearing and vision injuries; venomous or toxic flora and fauna; musculoskeletal injuries from training and recreation; occupational illness and injury; and environmental injury (for example, heat, cold, and humidity) to environmental sampling.
https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/preventive-medicine/
