Audit of the Effectiveness of Command and Control Arrangements for Medical Evacuation of Seriously Ill or Injured Casualties in Southern Afghanistan 2007

Cordell, Robin; Cooney, Mark; Beijer, Daan

doi:10.1136/jramc-154-04-03

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Even when implementing the best ADP policy, our simulation results indicate a mean response time of 154.0 minutes for urgent evacuations. While the standard stipulated by the United States Secretary of Defense is 60 minutes, we note that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) standard is 90 minutes (Cordell et al, 2008). Moreover, the Department of the Navy adheres to a standard of 120 minutes, as indicated in the field medical service technician student manual definitions (Department of the Navy, 2013).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Approximate dynamic programming for the dispatch of military medical evacuation assets

Rettke

Robbins

Lunday

2016

European Journal of Operational Research

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Military medical planners must consider the dispatching of aerial military medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) assets when preparing for and executing major combat operations. The launch authority seeks to dispatch MEDEVAC assets such that prioritized battlefield casualties are transported quickly and efficiently to nearby medical treatment facilities. We formulate a Markov decision process (MDP) model to examine the MEDEVAC dispatching problem. The large size of the problem instance motivating this research suggests that conventional exact dynamic programming algorithms are inappropriate. As such, we employ approximate dynamic programming (ADP) techniques to obtain high quality dispatch policies relative to current practices. An approximate policy iteration algorithmic strategy is applied that utilizes least squares temporal differencing for policy evaluation. We construct a representative planning scenario based on contingency operations in northern Syria both to demonstrate the applicability of our MDP model and to examine the efficacy of our proposed ADP solution methodology. A designed computational experiment is conducted to determine how selected problem features and algorithmic features affect the quality of solutions attained by our ADP policies. Results indicate that the ADP policy outperforms the myopic policy (i.e., the default policy in practice) by up to nearly 31 percent with regard to a lifesaving performance metric, as compared for a baseline scenario. Moreover, the ADP policy provides decreased MEDE-VAC response times and utilization rates. These results benefit military medical planners interested in the development and implementation of cogent MEDE-VAC tactics, techniques, and procedures for application in combat situations with a high operations tempo.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Approximate dynamic programming for the dispatch of military medical evacuation assets

Rettke

Robbins

Lunday

2016

European Journal of Operational Research

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“…Although there is dispute about the appropriate target for an acceptable time from wounding to initial resuscitation for medical planning purposes [8,9], there is widespread agreement that this should be as short as possible . There are four key timelines described in NATO policy and doctrine (Box 1) [7,11] .…”

Section: Planning Medical Evacuationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forward Medical Evacuation

Bricknell

2011

J R Army Med Corps

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This paper discusses the principles of medical evacuation planning and execution with specific consideration of the command and control arrangements for Forward medical evacuation. The current operational context has focussed efforts on helicopter medical evacuation as the main evacuation element of the pre-hospital military medical care system rather than the ground ambulance. This paper complements the significant number of papers recently published by RAMC clinical staff on prehospital care.

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“…One such classification might be by triage score (T1, T2 or T3) or urgency for medical evacuation [16] . Clinical coding systems such as Injury Severity Score (ISS) or Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) may be useful but are primarily designed for the assessment of severely injured civilian casualties rather than the whole casualty population presenting to military field hospitals [17] .…”

Section: Kcmia (Killed Captured or Missing In Action); Wia (Wounded mentioning

confidence: 99%

Casualty Estimation and Medical Resource Planning

Bricknell

Jones

Hatzfeld³

2011

J R Army Med Corps

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This paper considers casualty estimation and the link between historical evidence and prospective forecasting of demand for medical resources. It considers the purpose of casualty estimation at each level in the chain of command, reviews the historical uses of casualty estimation and considers the methodological approaches to casualty estimation. The link between historical evidence and future planning is demonstrated, and the use of casualty estimation within the medical planning process is examined.

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Audit of the Effectiveness of Command and Control Arrangements for Medical Evacuation of Seriously Ill or Injured Casualties in Southern Afghanistan 2007

Abstract: Regular audit of MEDEVAC response should be routine for Medical Operations staff, in order to ensure the optimal casualty care pathway from point of wounding to field hospital.

Cited by 11 publications

References 1 publication

Approximate dynamic programming for the dispatch of military medical evacuation assets

Approximate dynamic programming for the dispatch of military medical evacuation assets

Forward Medical Evacuation

Casualty Estimation and Medical Resource Planning

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