Some 40 surgeons and physicians assistants deployed to Iraq converged on the Air Force-run theater hospital at Balad AB, Iraq, to share battlefield medicine techniques. Hospital commander, Air Force Col. Brian Masterson, says that the joint services medical professionals have been able to achieve an astounding 98 percent survival rate “by defining and perfecting a standardization of care.” Col. Mark Richardson and Lt. Col. Craig Silverton developed the daylong Tri-Service Extremity War Surgery Symposium to foster the idea that there is “a standard way of treating wound X with therapy X to yield consistent, positive results,” reports Capt. Ken Hall. The trauma pace at Balad is four times that of stateside trauma centers.
As Air Force leaders consider concepts of operations for Collaborative Combat Aircraft, sustainment in the field—and easing that support by using standard parts and limiting variants—should be a key consideration, according to a new study from AFA's Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies.